Another school kid charged with sexual harrassment

It is no easy thing to draw the line between the normal over-friendliness often displayed by those with Downe's Syndrome, and actions done from s*xual motives by someone with the syndrome. I came across examples of both in my career as a teacher in a special school.

I noticed that the mother said: "The teachers and the administrators are not educated on children with developmental disabilities," but bus aides surely need some sort of training so that they know how to react to children with special needs on their bus, not just those with Downe's Syndrome, but epilepsy, autism, and many other conditions. How else can they possibily be expected to do their job properly?

 

Sexual harassment issues, like homosexual issues, suffer (too often, I'm afraid) at the hands of those with not the greatest of understanding. Christian perspectives about homosexuality, for example, are considered out of bounds and maybe even illegal by worldly standards and worldly standards rule the day we live in.

A boy with downs syndrome should be understood to have serious disabilities and all those involved with the care and transport of such disabled people should be fully aware of how to deal with those kind of disabilities. When I was a kid I volunteered to help with the disabled in a program called 'TARS' (teens aid the retarded) and I remember being around seriously disabled people (kids and adults) who could never be expected to be held accountable for their actions. Perhaps that was what caused the dropping of charges. Somebody with understanding brough the offended parties up to speed on common sense approaches to those kinds of problems.

 

I am not so sure I would condemn the school or the bus aid on this. Perhaps there was a miss-understanding and perhaps not. At 14 just because he has downs does not mean he is not interested sexually.
There was some mercy shown here by the person involved, but even if there was no intent by this child his actions need some correcting and if he is too mentally impaired to learn the correction then perhaps public education is not for him.