"With all lowliness and meekness, with longsuffering, forbearing one another in love;"
-Ephesians 4:2
-Ephesians 4:2
“I’ve terminated the life of my autistic child,”
-Father of an autistic boy
Police Report 11/23/2006
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The following reports represent collectively and separately the worst nightmares that we, the parents of an autistic child can have...made worse because they are all true.
They are horrible in their cruelty and stark in their testament to how some charged with the task of caregiver succumb to a fight that the "other" world has no idea about...that other sunny world where the dinner table discussion is about Little League, who's-friends-with-who at school, and getting homework done...not about living under a Damocles sword of funding cuts, medication adjustments, an indifferent public, screaming meltdowns in public, and spirit-crushing regressions.
The victims are often different in ways so far beyond the comprehension of the unexposed and the level of brutality inflicted so horrendous as to approach the point of a hideous fiction. One must wonder if their tormentors ever saw them as remotely human or even worthy of the life granted them.
To us they are not fiction because we know that there are many more humanity-blind "caregivers" are out there. There always will be.
My colorful, demanding, unpredictable, overly emotional, seemingly crazy, certainly wacky and often wonderful son...what waits for him in the future?
We all must play the hand we're dealt, there is no excuse for those who fail to do so. I make no excuse for the perpetrators. I do not care how rough they had it, how stressful it was, how alone they were in their fight. They failed themselves, the one that loved and depended on them, all of what they were here to do. They Failed.
The reader is warned.
***
...two of Distasio's victims were so helpless they could never tell anyone what happened.
"The defendant describes acts in which he had autistic children and he did what I would call sadistic sexual acts with these children," said Mason.
http://www.nbc10.com/news/9621055/detail.html
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83% of women with disability will become sexual abuse victims with disability in their lifetime -Alberta Committee of Citizens with Disabilities, 20025.
http://www.child-abuse-effects.com/sexual-abuse-victims-with-disability.html
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Autistic boy kept in New Brunswick jail
No other place for him to stay 13-year-old must go to U.S. hospital http://www.canadiancrc.com/articles/Tor_Star_Autistic_boy_kept_NB_jail_19OCT05.aspx
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A mother has pulled her toddler out of a Livingston Parish school after he was paddled, reportedly by his teacher. To make matters worse, the little boy is autistic and his mother says he can't get the care he needs at home.
http://www.wafb.com/Global/story.asp?S=7613338
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The jury saw McCarron's hospital room confession, videotaped just two days after her three year old autistic daughter Katie died. On the tape McCarron is seen hunched over on the side of her hospital bed holding her husband's hand. She spoke softly while telling a Morton police detective how she suffocated Katie with a white, plastic garbage bag. On the tape the defendant said "I just wanted autism out of her life." ^http://centralillinoisproud.com/content/fulltext/?cid=5801
For more on the murder of Katie McCarron by her mother (a physician in Illinois)http://www.autismconnect.org/news.asp?section=00010001&itemtype=news&id=5749
Photos of Katie McCarronhttp://www.notdeadyet.org/docs/mccarron/mccarronphotos.html
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Four unlicensed therapists, were charged in the death of Candace Newmaker, a 10 year old girl who died during "attachment therapy" in Golden, Colorado. It's not the first time that a child died because of so-called "holding" or "rebirthing" treatment for emotional disorders.They were convicted in April, 2001
http://www.healthwatcher.net/Quackerywatch/Attachment-therapy/
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Autistic boy dies during controversial treatmentWednesday, August 24, 2005
By Karen Kane and Virginia Linn, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
A 5-year-old Monroeville boy died this week during a medical treatment that's being touted by some as a cure for autism.
The autistic boy died while receiving chelation -- an intravenous injection of a synthetic amino acid known as EDTA, for ethylene diamine tetraacetic acid. The Food and Drug Administration has approved the practice only to treat heavy metal (such as lead) poisoning. The treatment is becoming increasingly popular, though still controversial, for autism.
http://post-gazette.com/pg/05236/559444.stm
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Autistic Boy Is Slashed to Death and His Father Is ChargedBy AL BAKER and LESLIE KAUFMANPublished: November 23, 2006
A severely autistic boy was found slashed to death in a bathtub in his Bronx apartment yesterday morning after his father called the authorities to report that the boy was dead, the police said.
“I’ve terminated the life of my autistic child,” the police said the father told officers who responded to the call.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/23/nyregion/23slash.html?_r=1&oref=slogin
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Autistic boy killed during exorcism - News and Comment
Kevin Christopher
The Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal (CSICOP) has been following the latest case of an exorcism-related death at the Faith Temple Church of the Apostolic Faith in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. On Friday, August 22, 2003, eight-year-old Terrance Cottrell, Jr., who suffers from autism, was wrapped in sheets and held down by church members during a prayer service held to exorcise the evil spirits they blamed for his condition.
According to the New York Times, "[h]is shirt was drenched in sweat when the church members who were holding him down, saying they wanted to rid him of demons, finally noticed that he was dead. He had urinated on himself, and his small, brown face had a bluish cast."
According to the medical examiner, there was extensive bruising on the back of the little boy's neck and it appeared that he died of mechanical asphyxiation from pressure placed on his chest. Pat Cooper, the boy's mother, told investigators that she held down one of Terrance's feet, while other women held down other parts of his body. Ray Anthony Hemphill, the preacher who led the spiritual healing service, held the boy's head and body down. Cooper said Hemphill's knee was pressed into the boy's chest at one point, but Hemphill, who weighs nearly 150 pounds, said that he at times lay on top of the boy, chest to chest. About two hours into the praying and the struggling, Hemphill got up but Terrance was sti
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m2843/is_6_27/ai_110575754/print
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Advocate criticizes use of stun gun: Autistic man's death unnecessary, he sayshttp://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/northwest/chi-0511300206nov30,1,5290050.story?coll=chi-newslocalnorthwest-hed
Cunningham "never had a history of violence but was sensitive to people touching him," said Moss, who also is executive director of United Cerebral Palsy of Illinois. "The force likely caused more agitation to Hansel. It's common for people with autism to be sensitive to sounds, to bright lights, to touch. "This type of force was not needed, the action was not necessary. The restraint was not protocol. Apparently the police were aware it was a home for autistic adults. But perhaps the police weren't framed or trained in less violent techniques.
Chicago Tribune
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Charges filed against dead toddler's day care operators.
Misdemeanor charges have been filed against the owners of a defunct child day care following an investigation into the death of a 2-year-old autistic boy last year. Randie Wilhelm and Vickey Stauffer were charged yesterday with injury to a child, resisting or obstructing an investigation, and failure to report child abuse. Police allege that Michelle Bott-Graham, who is 39, hurt Cameron Hamilton when she was treating him for autism at her home on November 29th... Cameron died December 5th of severe head trauma.NBC Newschannel 6
http://www.neurodiversity.com/murder.html
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Coroner probes halfway home death.
Gilpin told the family that three people were holding him face down on the kitchen floor - one on each shoulder and one on his legs - when all of a sudden he stopped breathing and his body went limp.
http://ont-autism.uoguelph.ca/Coroner_probe.html
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Death of Michael Renner-Lewis III
Fifteen-year-old Michael Renner-Lewis III, who had autism, died on the first day of school, August 25, 2003. The 6-foot, 165-pound teen died during or after he was restrained on his stomach
http://www.inclusiondaily.com/news/crime/parchment.htm
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Fairfield Center faulted in death: Ohio halts new mentally ill patients
CINCI
State officials temporarily banned new admissions at a residential center for the mentally retarded Monday after an investigation into the beating death of an autistic man showed that Fairfield Center's staff failed to protect the victim. The report by the Ohio Department of Health comes almost three weeks after Joseph Beaudoin, a 50-year-old man with profound mental retardation, was beaten and strangled. Sheila McLaughlin, Cincinnati Enquirer
http://news.cincinnati.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060314/NEWS01/603140341/-1/
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Final image of a despairing mother and her autistic son
They look like any mother and son arriving at a railway station at the start of an Easter day out. But just over an hour after this CCTV footage captured Alison Davies and her son Ryan, both probably leapt 100ft to their deaths from the Humber Bridge. Although Ms Davies suffered from depression, her decision to take her son away - so that her family "would not have to worry any more" - came at a time when new possibilities had opened up in her life. She had just started a new job, finally passed her driving test and was busying herself with home improvements at her house.Ian Herbert, The Independent (UK)
http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4158/is_20060421/ai_n16151562
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Light sentencing of New Zealand mother who killed autistic daughter expected
'I did it. I strangled my daughter. She was a misfit. People were scared of her because she was different,' she said. 'I wish it could have been quicker. I'd wanted to kill her for a long time.'ClariNet, Christchurch Press Company, The Daily Telegraph
http://spidernet.nl/~martijn_dekker/internaut/news/9807/30.casey.spml
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He died mentally for two years before he died physically. Every ounce of dignity was taken away from him."--Janice Roach, whose 14-year-old son, Matthew Goodman, died in February 2002 while at Bancroft School, a New Jersey institution. Matthew's Law, a measure designed to limit the use of restraints and seclusion for people with developmental disabilities and traumatic brain injuries, is named for the teen who had autism.
http://www.inclusiondaily.com/news/institutions/nj/bancroft.htm
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Mother convicted in murder of autistic child'The pattern of abuse culminated when Malphus slammed this 5-year-old boy's head into the refrigerator and threw him into the swimming pool,' May said. 'This was as vile and cold-blooded an act as I have ever seen.
http://savannahnow.com/stories/070502/LOCeoeMotherConvicted.shtml
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Mother kills autistic daughter, then herself
http://news.enquirer.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050930/NEWS01/509300416
A mother apparently frazzled over the care of her autistic adult daughter shot the disabled woman in the chest Thursday afternoon, set their home afire and then turned the gun on herself, police said. Neighbors and those who knew Jane Naylor said the 55-year-old mother had a difficult life trying to raise her daughter Sarah on her own.
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Mother of 10 on trial for murder in autistic stepson's starvation death
Cincinnati Enquirer
http://news.enquirer.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050930/NEWS01/509300416
The prosecution is seeking a first-degree murder conviction, saying Audrey McDaniels intentionally starved 18-year-old Brahim Dukes because she was overwhelmed by having to care for the severely disabled teenager along with all of her other children.Scranton Times Tribune
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Mother who suffocated son spared prison
Wendolyn Markcrow, 67, suffocated her son Patrick after his violent and loud behaviour escalated and drove her to despair, Oxford Crown Court heard. Late on 29 March, after sleeping drugs had failed to suppress her son's noisy insomnia, Markcrow smothered him with a plastic bag at the family home in Long Creedon, Buckinghamshire.Scotsman
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Joel SmithMurder, suicide mystifies family: Laguna Niguel father kills his autistic son and himself, leaving relatives stunned.
http://myoc.com/community/lagunaniguel/news/lnmurder020801.shtml
Tuesday afternoon, on the stoop of the family's two-story home in a manicured neighborhood, relatives said they have no idea why Delfin Bartolome, 55, shot his son before killing himself.
Laguna Niguel NewsNational Restraint Death Database
http://web.archive.org/web/20040610180722/www.copaa.net/newstand/data.html
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Council Of Parent Attorneys And Advocates (COPAA)
New Jersey Man Charged With Killing Autistic Son
http://www.ualberta.ca//htbin/lwgate/ICAD/archives/ICAD.1999-11/Author/article-29.html
Authorities say James Cummings, Senior walked into the Aventi Nursing Home yesterday morning and stabbed his 46-year-old son James, Junior. Police say the son was autistic and had recently suffered a stroke.
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Parents charged in boy's death
http://www.thestate.com/mld/thestate/news/local/5010746.htm
Almost two years after a 6-year-old autistic boy, Gabriel Britt, was found dead in a rural Dorchester County pond, his parents have been charged in his slaying.
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"Not Dead Yet Pinned Down: Devereux Cleo Wallace cited for violations of restraint policy in the death of 15-year-old Orlena Parkerhttp://www.csindy.com/csindy/2003-07-24/cover.html
In 1993, 17-year-old Casey Collier, an autistic boy who was 6 feet 5 inches tall and weighed 220 pounds, died of asphyxiation after being held in a physical restraint hold in a Cleo Wallace facility.
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Police probe death of autistic man
http://northeasttimes.com/2002/0320/starvation.html
Police said that the victim, Brahim Dukes, of Ruan Street near Penn Street, died of dehydration and malnutrition on Dec. 29. Police are awaiting the results of toxicology tests on Dukes, who had autism.
Times Online
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Author's note: The following report is long, but nothing underscores the inhumanity that "normal" persons are willing to inflict on those among us who are "differently-abled" as the following recent murder.
ABUSE UNCOVERED IN DEATH AT BRI
Victimization of 19-year old Linda Cornelison called "inhumane beyond all reason"
This is the full text of an article describing a recent investigation into a death of a young woman at BRI - it appeared in AUTCOM's newsletter, The Communicator ( (1995), vol. 6, no. 1.) This report is excerpted from bulletins of the Coalition for the Legal Rights of People with Disabilities. The Disabled Person's Protection Commission (DPPC) and the Massachusetts Department of Mental Retardation (DMR) released the report of an extensive investigation into the death of a 19-year old woman who died in 1990 at the Judge Rotenberg Center (JRC, Formerly the Behavior Research Institute, or BRI).
The investigation, which included interviews of 72 witnesses, review of hundreds of documents, and reports by four experts, concluded that JRC/BRI direct care staff, nursing staff, and administration, as well as several specific staff members, took actions that were "egregious" and "inhumane beyond all reason" and constituted not only violations of legal standards but violations of "universal standards of human decency."
Abuse and violations of DMR regulations were also found in the woman's treatment by JRC/BRI prior to her death. The Judge Rotenberg Center has been the source of controversy for years because of its heavy use of "aversives," which involve physically punishing people with mental retardation or autism to influence their behavior.
The woman, who was mentally retarded and could not speak, began showing signs and symptoms of illness on December 15 and 16,1990: she refused her food (she had always had a hearty appetite), she was restless and fidgety and made unusual noises. By December 17, she was pale, disoriented, had "glassy eyes," and kept attempting unsuccessfully to vomit.
During this time, because staff mistook her attempts to communicate her pain and discomfort for "target behaviors," she was punished repeatedly -- forced to smell ammonia, spanked, pinched, and forced to eat "taste aversives" -- either a vinegar mix, or jalapeno peppers or hot sauce.
She received a total of 61 aversives on the day that she died.
On the morning of December 18, after a 1-1/2 hour bus ride, she got off the bus and wouldn't move. She sat in a puddle, and had to be carried into school. From 4:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m., even though staff knew she was "not herself," her punishments escalated dramatically.
By 7:00 p.m. she had received 8 spankings, 27 finger pinches, 14 muscle squeezes and had been forced to inhale ammonia at least five times and given several taste aversives, even though she was "obviously ill."
In fact, she was receiving so many aversives that staff requested and were granted permission to increase her aversives from 40 per day to 95 per day.
She received a total of 61 aversives on the day that she died. The total number of aversives on December 17 and 18 was greater than the number she had received in the entire month of December up to that point.
She had always disliked the aversives, and was terrified of the ammonia, but protests or attempts to avoid them simply led to more punishment.
Nursing staff was not notified until the morning of December 18 about her condition. Even though the nursing staff knew she was ill, no one kept her out of school, stopped her punishment program, or made any effort to determine whether the behaviors leading to punishment were attempts to communicate her rising pain. The first nursing shift, although notified she was ill, did notpass that information along to the second shift. From 3:00 p.m. until 8:00 p.m. on December 18, no one with any health care training was monitoring her condition. At 8:00 p.m. on December 18, she was lying on the floor of the bathroom and unable to get up, pale with a bluish tinge to her skin.
Although a registered nurse was notified, she refused to call an ambulance until a medical technician arrived and confirmed the need for it half an hour later. By the time the 19-year old woman reached the hospital, her blood pressure was zero and she was in shock. She was not operated on until 12:45 a.m. She died on the operating table at 1:35 a.m. on December 19. The Medical Board of Registration and Department of Health are investigating the behavior of the hospital in delaying surgery for three hours...
The autopsy revealed that her stomach had been perforated, (and) that she had extensive ulcers. The cause of the perforation remains unknown....
Although JRC/BRI retained an independent pathologist and conducted their own internal investigation, they refused, despite repeated requests, to make this information available to DPPC or DMR. They refused to give investigators the incident note made about the events of 12/18/90 by a registered nurse, or the nursing notes for this period. Six months of nursing notes were reported missing by JRC/BRI for this period.
Because the woman's death was gastroenterological in nature and related to ulcers, DPPC and DMR investigators and their experts also investigated her treatment through a "specialized food plan." On the specialized food plan, she had to earn her daily meals by not engaging in certain behaviors and/or working on a computer.
Ironically, staff confirmed that although her meals depended on her getting right answers on a computer, she neither understood the relationship between getting fed and getting the right answer on the computer, nor how to get the right answer on the computer. "If she didn't earn her food, it was thrown out. She got real thin, she was skinny," said one staff member.
Staff also said that she was "always wanting to eat." The program allowed the 19-year old to be limited to as few as 300 calories a day, 20% of her minimum calorie intake for the day.
A dietary expert consulted by the investigator stated that it was impossible to maintain the woman's health on 300 calories a day, and that she needed at least 1737 calories a day to maintain her lowest acceptable weight, 108 pounds. Although JRC/BRI was under a court order to ensure that her weight did not slip below 90% of ideal body weight, the autopsy report showed that the woman, who had weighed 125 pounds when she was put on the food program less than a year before her death, weighed 90 pounds. In less than a year, she had lost 35 pounds, 28% of her body weight. In addition, although DMR regulations permit the use of intrusive and severe aversives such as spanking and ammonia for "seriously dangerous behaviors," the woman was punished when she displayed the following behaviors: "Drooling, spitting, nagging, stopping work, refusing, silly laughing.
She was deprived of food for merely having the wrong answer on the computer."
In related BRI news, in January 20, 1995, the Massachusetts Department of Mental Retardation issued its report and Decision on Certification to Use Level III Interventions to JRC/BRI. The Department's regulations related to behavior modification and four out of twelve conditions of certification. Based on their findings, the Department ordered JRC/BRI to terminate the use of Level III interventions (which include the use of all painful aversives such as shock, forced inhalation of ammonia, water squirts, taste aversives, denial of meals) on six residents. The Department granted conditional certification permitting JRC/BRI to continue using Level III aversives on the remaining residents. The Department found that despite a requirement that Level III -- the most intrusive and painful interventions -- be used only to control "extraordinarily dangerous behaviors that cause serious harm,"
JRC/BRI was restraining and shocking residents, denying them food and forcing them to smell ammonia inhalants for behaviors such as "nagging," "slouching," "silly laughing," "refusing to get up out of seat," "tearing paper," "staring at objects, "staring at thumb or fingers," or "holding one hand with another while looking at his thumb" ...Residents are also shocked for trying to remove the electric shock device attached to them, or for grabbing at staff when they are shocked.
One staff member stated that while VI's treatment plan called for her to be punished when she was aggressive, she was in fact only aggressive when she was punished.
In addition, despite requiring that these measures only be used when they are the least restrictive and most appropriate to a resident's needs, the Department found that JRC/BRI used these interventions even when far less intrusive and painful interventions were more effective...When aversives were lowered for the client who died on 12/19/90, her problem behaviors went down.... JRC/BRI repeatedly barred access to the Department for necessary reviews and investigations. (Excerpted from "Abuse Confirmed in Death at BRI," and "The Department of Mental Retardation Finds Serious Violations of Regulations at JRC/BRI," bulletins of the Coalition for the Legal Rights of People with Disabilities.)
Eric MacLeish, BRI lawyer, stated, "Linda's death was tragic, but it was not the result of negligence. We didn't do anything wrong. We loved her.
Despite the report of the probe into the death of Linda Cornelison, which was delivered to top DMR officials on January 3, and despite the findings of serious violations in the treatment of other clients, on January 20 DMR conditionally recertified JRC/BRI. BRI administrators were questioned by legislators at a public hearing on February 22 at the Massachusetts State House. BRI Director Matthew Israel, PhD, defended his program by citing the Autism Society of America (ASA) position statement declaring that each family has the right to "select options they feel are most appropriate for their autistic family member" and insisted that aversives constitute effective "therapy."
However, he was forced to admit that 5,300 electroshocks in one day did not work for one BRI client.
State Rep. James V. DiPaola, a former police sergeant and vice chairman of the Joint Committee on Human Affairs and Elderly Services, self-administered an electroshock from BRI's machine, which caused him to leap out of his seat. "It was torture," he stated. "It was very painful." Also speaking at the hearings was BRI's attorney Eric MacLeish, who branded Roberta Cornelison's malpractice lawsuit against BRI as "irresponsible." (reported in The Boston Herald, Feb. 15 and 23, 1995, and by AUTCOM members in attendance)
http://normemma.com/lcorneli.htm
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The following was copied from "Murder of Autistics" which can be found at:
http://www.thiswayoflife.org/murder.html
"
In Loving Memory...This page is dedicated to those autistics who were killed because they were autistic, including:
Casey Albury (Age 17, died 1997)
Angelica Auriemma (Age 20, died 5 Dec. 2003)
Dale Bartolome (Age 27, died 29 July 2002)
Charles-Antoine Blais (Age 6, died Nov. 1996)
Eric Bland (Age 38, 2004)
Jeffrey Bogrett (Age 9, died 1 Dec. 1995)
Gabriel Britt (Age 6, died 3 March 2001)
Casey Collier (Age 17, died 21 Dec. 1993)
Maggie Caraballo (Age 38, died 20 Aug. 2003)
Jonathan Carey (Age 13, died February 2007)
Terrance Cottrell, Jr. (Age 8, died 22 Aug. 2003)
James Joseph Cummings, Jr. (Age 46, died 16 Nov. 1999)
Jason Dawes (Age 10, died Aug. 2003)
Christopher DeGroot (Age 19, died 19 May 2006)
Brahim Dukes (Age 18, died 29 Dec. 2001)
Marcus Fiesel (Age 3, died August 2006)
Lillian Leilani Gill (Age 4, died March 2002)
Matthew Goodman (Age 14, died 6 Feb. 2002)
Jim Helm (died 1998)
Stephanie Jobin (Age 13, died 17 June 1998)
Daniel Leubner (Age 13, died 4 Sept. 1999)
Katherine McCarron (Age 3, died 13 may 2006)
Patrick Markcrow (Age 36, died 29 March 2005)
Justin Malphus (Age 5, died 19 April 2000)
Charles Mancill (Age 24, died 13 Feb. 2002)
Sean Miles (Age 37, died 2 May 2006)
Abubakar Nadama (Age 5, died 23 Aug. 2005)
Mark Owens-Young-Rogan (Age 11, died 17 Sept. 2001)
Pierre Pasquiou (Age 10, died 28 Dec. 1998)
Tiffany Pinckney (Age 23, died 2 April 2005)
Michael Renner-Lewis (Age 15, died 25 Aug. 2003)
Nozomu Shinozaki (Age 22, died 25 Feb. 2003)
Craig Sorger (Age 12, died 15 Feb. 2003)
Ulysses Stable (Age 12, died 22 Nov. 2006)
Tanaka (Age 14, died 24 July 2002)
Matthew Vick (Age 23, died 25 May 2002)
Wayne Winter (Age 39, died 15 Jan. 2001)
Willie Wright (Age 15, died 4 March 2000)
When these lives were taken from the world, some of the world's beauty and wonder was taken with them. We have lost that beauty and wonder forever. "
-"joel"
The author of "Water Is Jumping" would like to thank all the authors of published web pages such as those at neurodiversity.com , inclusiondaily.com, notdeadyet.org, healthwatcher.net, child-abuse-effects.com along with news services the world over.
You all have kept the watch for those killed or abused because they were different in harmless ways. Ways that most of the world continues to refuse to understand or tollerate. Especially "Joel", who is autistic, for his very moving web pages regarding autism. Joel's pages can be found at: http://www.thiswayoflife.org/
It is this author's hope that one more page..just a drop really...will add to all the others. Enough drops can form a flood and a flood can change everything.
It is this author's hope that one more page..just a drop really...will add to all the others. Enough drops can form a flood and a flood can change everything.
"...with longsuffering, forbearing one another in love;" For Timothy and all the others like him, no matter what, it just has to be that way.
For all of us.
***
"If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer. Let him step to the music which he hears, however measured or far away. "
-Henry David Thoreau
