Nightmare Come True: Police Training, Autism, and Down Syndrome

Sometimes I spend time worrying about my infant son’s future.  My son with Down syndrome.  My son with a disability.  My son, a human being.

Among the things I worry about is that the world will see him as nothing but a problem.  An anomaly, a special circumstance, some thing to be “handled” and “managed”.  I worry that people will take one look at him and hold him up to a stereotype, and he’ll never have a chance to be fully human.  If he matches the stereotype, everything he says or does will be a foregone conclusion.  If he deviates from the stereotype, he’ll be nothing but an even greater abnormality.

My fears became reality today. Read the rest of this entry »