We Don't Need Anymore Autism Ideological Extremism

In Colorado the prosecution has announced that it will not pursue charges against a woman who killed her child because she feared that her child was autistic.  Unfortunately some in the ever controversial world of "autism awareness", including Shannon Des Roches Rosa aka Squid Rosenberg of the ironically named Thinking Person's Guide to Autism have chosen to use this tragedy to promote their particular ideology and viciously attack those with whom they disagree. 

A defense psychiatrist and a prosecution psychiatrist in Colorado each found the woman to be insane. The hospital in which she is detained refuse to release her for a  court appearance and when she did appear it was in a suicide preventing smock. The details are of her killing of her  child, as reported at Daily Camera online are  gut wrenching. 

"Child would 'ruin' her life


During the initial investigation last summer, Rochester told detectives that she believed her baby, Rylan, was autistic, and that having an autistic child would emotionally and financially "ruin" her life.


According to a police report, she told detectives that she placed a plastic bag over Rylan's head. When the infant was still breathing some time later, she told police she placed blankets over his face.


When Rylan was unresponsive in the morning, his parents rushed him to Avista Hospital in Louisville, where he was declared dead June 1, 2010.


Since pleading not guilty by reason of insanity late last year, Rochester has spent much of her time at the state hospital in Pueblo.


On one occasion, doctors there refused to release her for a court appearance in Boulder. They said she was too unstable to travel. Rochester frequently has appeared in court wearing a suicide-prevention smock."

Out of this tragedy Shannon des Roches Rosa was inspired to  advocate ... not for improved services, and help, for mothers with serious mental health issues and post partum depression but to attack "negative portrayals of autism" in the media, parents and parent organizations that paint negative pictures of autism. She attacks Age of Autism,   Adventures in Autism, AnneDachel, and SafeMinds and describes them as "evil":

"Vanquish the Forces of Autism Evil! Declare Your #AutismPride!

I also blame autism organizations and websites like Age of Autism, Adventures in Autism, AnneDachel, and SafeMinds, which have made unilateral demonization of autism their mission; which do no outreach whatsoever based on building positive supports and communities; and which use calculated cult-like "us or them" mindsets, attack dog techniques, misinformation, and censorship practices to keep their almost exclusively autism parent and grandparent faithfuls' righteous indignation and self-pity at a roiling boil.

It doesn't matter how much you love someone with autism -- if you continuously and publicly declare them damaged goods, you are hurting them. And their peers. And telling everyone else it is acceptable to hurt Autistics."

Ms Des Roches Rosa is not content to attack anyone who presents the negative realities of autism disorders. I suspect she would take great offence and declare me evil for referring to autism as a disorder or group of disorders. She does, however, find the wherewithal in her anguish and anger to pat herself, and her fellow "Thinking Persons", on the back and promote their forthcoming book:

"this latest tragedy makes me frantic to get our TPGA book out (I'm marking up the proof right now, if there are no more hiccups with the publication process and thanks to the superhero manuscript powers of Jen Myers, it should be available in one week)."

For Des Roches Rosa, judging by the content of her blog page, autism is not a serious mental disorder listed in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders of the American Psychiatric Association.  For her autism does not include intellectual disability, serious self injury, injury to family members and caregivers. When an autistic person goes wandering and drowns or dies in a snow storm in Nova Scotia that is not autism.  When a 50 year old severely autistic woman is abused in a facility in New York state by her attendants who are caught only because of a surveillance camera and a conscientious co-worker that is not autism. The adult autistics that, in my capacity as an autism organization representative, I have visited in psychiatric hospital facilities where they live out their lives, are not autism. For Ms Des Roches Rosa my severely autistic son who has limited understanding of the world, has limited communication skills, has bitten his hands and wrists and slapped and hit his head is not autism.  For her talking honestly about my son's autism realities makes me evil. 

For Des Roches Rosa autism is not a disorder. For her it is just some proudly quirky people fighting against the forces of evil including parents struggling to help their autistic children live the best lives they can.

I do not agree with Ms Des Roches Rosa and her fluffy, feel good, very high functioning autism advocacy.  I find her claim to be a "Thinking Person" capable of guiding others on autism subjects to be ... amusing.  But, unlike her, I do not , because of our differing perspectives about autism disorders describe her as "evil".

Shannon Des Roches Rosa is misguided, seriously misguided in her views about autism disorders.  In her essay on the Colorado infanticide she has engaged in ideological extremism. She apparently harbors much hatred towards parents who view autism disorders as ... disorders ... but I have no reason to describe her as "evil".  And I do not intend to follow her example and  declare war on her or any other member of the world autism "community" with whom I disagree about autism disorders.

To Shannon Des Roches Rosa, I wish you and your loved ones happiness during the  approaching holiday season and beyond.