how are special needs children treated at your school?

Question

Ihave a 16 yearpld neice who is autistic she attends a regular public high school gets on the honor roll every grading period and seems happy but i always wondered about how the other kids treat her while she's at school.Any teens ,parents,and teachers out there in high and middle school willing to tell me about how they and their peers treat the kids in their school who have special needs.

Answer 1

It varies depending on where she goes to school, what her classmates are like, etc.

I'm 15 and autistic and, like your niece, attend a regular public high school with high grades. I'm treated decently at school, though I get tired of people switching between the labels "genius" and "retard" depending on what situation they see me in - I wish that they could just accept me as myself without trying to assign me one single label that doesn't fit me.

I don't have close non-autistic (neurotypical or NT) friends - all of my friends are on the autistic spectrum and I'm fine with that. I don't get invited to many parties or social events, but that's not much of a problem because I find most parties incompatible with my sensory system. I'm visibly autistic but haven't been harassed much for stimming. (Just a few questions when I flap.) I was called a "retard" quite a few times in regular PE because I can't comprehend the rules of sports or process quickly enough to play sports properly, so I did things like try to pull the flags of people on my own team in flag football. I'm going to be in special education for PE this year, and I don't know what reaction that will cause in my peers.

I don't know what my peers say about me when I'm not around, but I have observed other people sitting around me laughing at some of the other autistics in my classes when they answer questions. I can't monologue out loud about my interests any more due to social anxiety issues, so I don't know how that would be received. I was harassed a bit in junior high by people who proclaimed that I must be "the girl from the Ring" because I acted oddly and who told me that I had to "do the hair thing" and sign autographs. I also met a lot of people who approached me with seemingly friendly intentions and then started to harass me. Right now, I'm for the most part well-treated but am usually at the bottom of neurotypical social hierarchies (I prefer to be around other autistics because we don't have social hierarchies; we're more like cats) and meet a lot of condescending people.

I recommend asking your niece how she is treated in school. Autistics don't show emotion in exactly the same way as NTs, so it's not necessarily a good idea to just assume that she is being treated well.

Answer 2

Where I went to school, for the most part kids were nice to special needs students, but no matter where you go there will always be a few mean kids.