Adam Lanza, the perpetrator of the Newtown, Connecticut massacre, has been variously described by the media as “odd,” “aloof” and “a loner”. Some reporters described him as “lacking empathy” and, finally, Lanza was labeled as “suffering from a mental illness like Asperger’s” and being “on the autism spectrum.” To author Priscilla Gillman, the mother of an autistic child, these kinds of unfounded and incorrect statements are both heartbreaking and horrifying. She wonders if every autistic child will be viewed with suspicion as a possible killer and will those with mental illnesses be stigmatized even more than they are today. She finds it ironic that autism is being blamed for the Newtown tragedy when the autistic child is generally the one who is the object of bullying and ridicule.
Read the entire article here: Don’t Blame Autism for Newtown
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