Working with autistic students, you see a lot of the good, but also a lot of bad. At my school, we work with high-school aged and college-aged students, teaching them life skills and helping them find jobs.

While we teach good behavior and social boundaries, many of our students do not get reinforcement at home, for whatever reason. One particular male student liked to get too personal with female teachers. He lived with his grandmother, who thought the behavior was cute and didn’t stop him. We tried explaining to her why this was harmful, but she wouldn’t listen.

One day, the grandmother and student were out shopping. Usually she kept him close by, but at some point, he got away from her and was wandering the aisles. Turning a corner, he saw a woman bent over a shelf. He immediately went up to her and hugged her tightly from behind.

The woman, finding herself trapped in a strange man’s embrace that wouldn’t let her go, started screaming for help. Her husband, in the next aisle over, heard her and came running. When he came to the aisle, he saw a strange young man, about twenty-two years old, and a foot taller than his wife, pinning her arms down at her sides from behind. So he did what any person would do and clocked the guy.

At that moment, the grandmother finally came on the scene and started yelling at the man for knocking her grandson out, saying “He’s autistic, he doesn’t know any better.” The husband replied that all he saw was someone hurting his wife and how was he to know?

The student was okay, though a bit dazed. The grandmother tried to press charges, but since her grandson was of age, the police explained the couple could press charges right back, so she dropped the case. She still thinks her grandson can do no wrong, but luckily, he’s learned, and no longer tries to get personal with random women or female teachers at the school.

And this is the story I use to illustrate to people why, no matter what mental or physical handicap your child has, or how “normal” your child is, always teach them proper boundaries and reinforce social norms! It might save them from a nasty beating.

At 14 my family took my siblings and I to a sandwich shop before going to an amusement park. Half of the sandwich ended up sitting in the car for a few hours until we got home. My dad has always been very pushy about not wasting food, so first thing the next morning, I eat the other half of my sandwich. Even though it tasted fine, I end up incredibly sick from it. After hugging the porcelain throne for 8+ hours, with nothing left in me, I stand up and almost fall over from dizziness and fatigue. My mom, who has been worried about me all day, decides it’s time to go to the hospital. I get my first ever IV, they run tests, basically just try to figure out what is wrong. I don’t remember everything but this is the gist.
Nurse: (starting with the IV) “wow your veins are so easy to see, I don’t even have to use my glasses!!” She inserts the needle.
Nurse “oh I’m so sorry. I just blew the vein! I’m so sorry!” She refused to try again, looked like she was about to cry and spent the rest of my visit peeking around the corner at me, if she saw me looking at her, she would scurry away. (I would’ve felt bad for her if I didn’t feel so miserable.)
Doctor (talking to my mom) “well we don’t know what’s wrong with her. She either has food poisoning or a virus but *symptom* negates food poisoning while *other symptom* negates virus. She is low on potassium though so we’re just going to give her that.”
Suddenly my stomach starts cramping up horribly probably due to having no food/water all day. I tell my mom and when the new nurse comes back with the potassium, my mom tells her. I’m laying there hoping they bring me food but instead the nurse comes back with a vial of something to inject in my IV. The last thing I remember is her telling my mom it was phinagrin and looking at the clock, I watched it as it changed to 3:00 a.m.
My mom told me later on that my eyes were closed before she finished pushing down the plunger. Apparently they turned the potassium drip on max because I wouldn’t feel the burn. Afterwards they were wheeling me out in a wheelchair, I couldn’t sit up straight and my feet kept falling off the footrests causing the chair to run over them. I woke up a little when we pulled into our driveway. I remember pulling off my seatbelt and reaching for the door while my mom was yelling at “hang on, don’t get out yet! Let me help you!” Over and over. I told her, full of teenage know-it-all, “nah I got this.” As soon as I got out I ended up stumbling and falling across the hood of her car. As my mom helps me up and is trying to walk me inside, the last thing I actually remember is slurring out “I think I’m drunk.” Obviously that was hilarious to me in my altered state. I woke up 12 hours after that dang shot, in my bed, almost my entire arm was completely bruised in all kinds of pretty colors and some dried substance on my forehead. Apparently my mom fed me some tomato soup and my head kept falling in the bowl.
So yeah that was my first experience being blitzed out of my mind and I still find the statement “I think I’m drunk” hilarious.

Mom: “Do you want a shake?”
Me: “Nah, I’m not hungry.”
(For some reason she decides to make a shake for me anyways)
Mom: *Handing me the shake* “Here.”
Me: “…But I don’t want it?”
Mom: *Getting angry* “What? You said you wanted one!”
Me: “Uh, no I didn’t? I said I wasn’t hungry”
Mom: “You said you wanted one!”
Me: “No, I didn’t. Why would I say I wanted one when I’m not hungry?!”

(She continues to insist that I said I wanted one before getting pissed and forces me to dump the shake into the sink)

Out district manager comes in to.bring some stuff. Over the headset i hear this:

Dm: whose the manager in duty tonight?
Manager Jacob: Not Jacob!
Dm (joking): Good, I didn’t want to deal with him anyway

I start laughing and an standing right by Jacob so he says into the headset so that all the employees and the DM can here: “Did you here the way he spoke to me, How rude!”

(I’ve been really liking a limited time sandwich [Restaurant] offers, so I’ve been ordering it whenever I go for the past couple weeks. Since it’s advertised as limited time only, I always double check that it’s still on the menu before I order it. This time is no different.)

Me: I’ll have the [Limited Sandwich].

Cashier: (Glares and slowly shakes her head.)

Me: Um…?

Cashier: We don’t have it. Order something else.

Me: Oh, is the event over? Or are you out for the day?

Cashier: ORDER. SOMETHING. ELSE!!

(I could still see the promo displayed clearly behind her, so I don’t think I was being a typical clueless customer by ordering it. Apparently I was supposed to know they were out, despite the large sign behind her advertising it.)