Labeling Close to Home

Getting an autism label is always laden with emotions.  I write about D-Day- or Diagnosis Day- in my book, Parenting Bright Kids with Autism.   It’s when things get real.  When things aren’t just temporary.  When what was cute/odd/ quirky becomes a THING, a SYNDROME, a CONDITION.  I have always encouraged families to get a label because you can get help.  You can get services with a label.  You can get access to a lot of things with a label. But I never really thought about the presence of a label as legal protection. 

I am from St. Simons Island in Georgia, and in this sleepy southern community where everyone knows each other, a young man, Trent Lehrkamp, was recently left for dead at the local hospital with a blood alcohol level of .464- almost 6 times the legal limit.  It’s unclear exactly what happened, but social media started circulating truly horrific pictures of him at a party with at least nine other people, bound with duct tape, sprayed with a hose, and spraypainted, with stories about how he had been urinated on and made to drink and eat hallucinogenic shrooms.  Various police and media stories have described it as “bullying”, “hazing”, “torture”.  There has been a tremendous outcry in the community, and “Justice for Trent” signs because the county police have yet to file charges against either the kids or the parents who owned the house where the party happened. The FBI has been brought in. 

Also circulating on social media were statements about Trent having autism. This 19-year-old young man was reportedly hanging out with 16- and 17-year-old high school students and allegedly, they had done this several times with Trent having gone to the ER before.  In the media, his father said that he had warned him about these kids, but that Trent wanted to fit in and have friends. However, there has been quite a bit of confusion between what is being said by the police who are investigating and the social media hue and cry.  One of the issues that has come out is that Trent has not been diagnosed with autism. 

As I have been watching this play out, I have been horrified for so many reasons.  But one thing I found particularly sad was the response to the use of the label. In various media, Trent was said to be “mortified” that he was called autistic. His father’s girlfriend was quoted as saying “He’s not autistic. Oh my God. He’s not autistic”.  I’m sure that Trent is traumatized; I’m sure he is struggling to make sense of it.  But his mortification of being accused of the label is reflective of the overall misunderstanding of autism.

There are stories every day about how people with autism are abused and killed because of their differences. Linden Cameron, an unarmed 13-year old, was shot by police in Salt Lake City because he tried to “elope” during an altercation with his family. Eric Parsa, an unarmed young man, was killed by police in Louisiana during an autistic meltdown. Elijah McClain, a young, unarmed African-American man was put into a chokehold that killed him in Colorado when he asked them to leave him alone. And this is not only an American issue.  Eyad al-Halaq, an unarmed Palestinian man, was killed by Israeli police for walking oddly.  Autistic people displaying their differences can provoke terrible reactions in people who don’t understand autism.

But here is the thing.  The presence of a label, proof of a disabling condition, provides protection under the law.  A hate crime is a crime committed with a “bias motivation”. If Trent, or anyone else, were being bullied/ hazed/ tortured because he has a disability, that could be considered a hate crime and punishable under federal law. And these happen a lot.  According to the Bureau of Justice Statistics,

• Persons with disabilities were victims of 26% of all nonfatal violent crime, while accounting for about 12% of the population.
• The rate of violent victimization against persons with disabilities (46.2 per 1,000 age 12 or older) was almost four times the rate for persons without disabilities (12.3 per 1,000).
• One in three robbery victims (33%) had at least one disability.
• Persons with cognitive disabilities had the highest rate of violent victimization (83.3 per 1,000) among the disability types measured.
• Nineteen percent of rapes or sexual assaults against persons with disabilities were reported to police, compared to 36% of those against persons without disabilities.

According to the OSCE , the signs that a crime is a disability hate crime include:

• Incidents escalate in severity and frequency;
• Sustained attacks, excessive violence;
• Cruelty, humiliation, degrading treatment;
• Perpetrators often known to the victims, they can be so-called “friends”, care givers, acquaintances or neighbors;
• Multiple perpetrators involved in incidents, condoning, and encouraging the main offender(s).

Children preying on others because of perceived differences is a sign of a very serious problem within the island community and the larger culture.  But the FBI is involved now in this case, and hate crimes are federal offenses. Their case could be easier if there had been a label.  I don’t know if Trent has unidentified autism or any sort of label, but it could be easier for justice to be served if he had. 

In this month of April and Autism Awareness Month, I beg families and professionals to not be afraid of seeking a label.  Kids with differences are going to be bullied whether or not they have a label. But with a label, you can get help.  You can get services. You can get access.  And you might get some level of justice.