Posted on May 24, 2022
Washington is sending youth in crisis to out-of-state boarding schools; taxpayers pick up the tab...
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Before the COVID pandemic struck in early 2020, Robin Marie’s son Brennan was attending a school in Issaquah for youth who are autistic. His needs were so great that he had two-to-one staff support.
At home in the afternoons, Brennan would work with a behavioral specialist. He also met regularly with a counselor, an occupational therapist and a speech pathologist.
But COVID upended all of that. Suddenly Brennan, who is a student in the Lake Washington School District east of Seattle, had to attend school virtually and meet with his therapists over Zoom.
The Northwest News Network is not using Brennan’s last name, which is different from his mother’s, to protect his privacy as a minor.
Marie said the disruption in routine and lack of support drove her “sweet and loving” son, who also struggles with severe anxiety, into crisis. Soon he was lashing out physically. First, she said, he destroyed three laptops. Then he turned on her.
At home in the afternoons, Brennan would work with a behavioral specialist. He also met regularly with a counselor, an occupational therapist and a speech pathologist.
But COVID upended all of that. Suddenly Brennan, who is a student in the Lake Washington School District east of Seattle, had to attend school virtually and meet with his therapists over Zoom.
The Northwest News Network is not using Brennan’s last name, which is different from his mother’s, to protect his privacy as a minor.
Marie said the disruption in routine and lack of support drove her “sweet and loving” son, who also struggles with severe anxiety, into crisis. Soon he was lashing out physically. First, she said, he destroyed three laptops. Then he turned on her.
Washington is sending youth in crisis to out-of-state boarding schools; taxpayers pick up the tab...
Posted from kuow.org
State of Washington
Taxes
Children
Posted >1 y ago
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Po1 Chip Nagel I feel for her. I have a close relative who is autistic but not violent. It takes a special kind of parent to deal with this. God bless her
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PO1 William "Chip" Nagel
SPC Lyle Montgomery Thank You Shipmate! When People Talk about "Autistic" they focus on Just One Part of the Spectrum. There are Others, Some even Serve in the Military, Suited for Certain Military Skills.
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I used to work with troubled kids here in PA. Guess what. Our state has no special facilities to send certain kids to. None. And PA's Medicaid program will not send them out-of-state to get the care they need. So if a child has both developmental issues, mental health issues, & needs long term care, they are SOL.
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PO1 William "Chip" Nagel
SSG Ralph Watkins Truly Sad to Hear, Some "Mental Health Issues" can be Strengths in the Military, MM2 Fredrick William Wesling, Quite a Talented Man and Machinist Mate and Electrician, Bi-Polar Aspbergers passed on More than a Few Gene's to His Nephew CTO1 William Wesling Nagel, Retired Navy Spook.
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SSG Ralph Watkins
I worked at NSA back in the early 90s. We had a DoD civilian who was brilliant. He had Apsberger's. Google Earth & facial recognition software got their start with what he did back then. He did need a handler who had to translate his train or thought to the bosses. When he was working on the facial recognition program, he suddenly stopped. They asked what was wrong. Nothing. That was his answer. They got him into a meeting & asked how long before he resumes working on it again. 10 years. Now the NSA bosses were furious with him. They had no idea what his issue was. His handler finally got it out of him. Computer hardware needed 10 years of advancement before he could work on the next step of the software. NSA had the best tech in the world but it would still take 10 years from 1992 for hardware to catch up. He was a fun guy to work with.
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