Well it's not just the rat really.
Ds2 aged 9 has ASD and attends a special school 18 miles away, so has transport there and back. Two other children get picked up, but as ds lives the furthest away he gets picked up first/ dropped home last.
Transport was overhauled over the summer so he has a new taxi driver and chaperone, It's the first time for both of them in this line of work.
Ds never stops talking is very sociable and loves chatting, mainly with adults. After the first few days they installed an in car dvd player, this lasted 2 weeks, ds mainly likes to watch Spongebob on repeat and talk endlessly about what's happening. The dvd player has vanished.
Then one day last week he arrived home very chuffed with 50p he had won. He had
it for beating the taxi driver in the silence competition on the way home. After some probing I found out this competition only starts after dropping off the other 2 boys, so the last 15 minutes of the journey.
This competition has been repeated daily on the return journey, with ds mainly winning an extra strong mint 
Ds thinks this is great.
Yesterday, I opened the door to see him brandishing what initially appeared to be some kind of roadkill. I don't think I disguised my horror very well and blurted out "What on earth is that?". His chaperone looked kind of sheepish and told me he'd won in in the silence game, and how good he was getting at it
I think i mumbled something like oh great, well done and got ds inside. On closer inspection it is a vile , cheap scratchy rat "toy". It' positively evil. Ds loves it. He thinks it's cute. It's now his favourite toy ever and I had to strongly persuade him not to take it to school this morning. It could take a child's eye out with it's demonic plastic claws.
I'm dreading what could arrive home with ds today.
So, AIBU? There is the not small issue of bribing a child with SN to keep quiet, that I am very uncomfortable with. I know he can be draining, but it's only 90 mins in total each day, much of that he is just talking to his friends in the taxi (they're in the same class). I'm hoping the game will fizzle out soon. In fairness he likes the game. WWYD?
Then there is the issue of the evil rattington, who is currently staring unwaveringly at me . Waiting for more friends to join him.
sigh that was long, well done if you read it to the end. It's been bugging me and i needed to write it out.