Thanks to moms all over the world who saw the youtube videos of a young autistic man at Bournemouth and Poole college being taunted and baited by bullies, the videos were removed and the perpetrators have been expelled. There is talk of legal action and action taken with respect to the "rights of the child" and of course disability discrimination.
news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/dorset/6311477.stm www.bournemouthecho.co.uk/display.var.1155346.0.disgust_over_phone_clips_of_taunted_autistic_boy.php
I dont understand why the link i originally posted regarding the videos was removed, nor, as a parent of an autistic child, do i understand the comments that were made about not wanting them posted here. Having spoken about the links being removed to friends in the USA, they are at a loss, and chalked it up to being "in denial".
Here of ALL places was appropriate for the videos to be posted. As a parent, i want to know what is going on in our schools and I for one, made a huge stink about this incident as did hundreds of other parents who saw the videos and worried about this young man's emotional and physical safety.
Increasingly, i am coming to the conclusion that mumsnet must be a clique of the few vs the many, the few who seem to have sway over content and who have sway over the direction of threads. Maybe there is bullying going on in mumsnet? I know i have had some "choice" comments, that havent had much forethought, thrown at me, comments which were intentionally rude on a personal basis.
Whoever complained to mumsnet about the videos being posted here, they should think about WHY they were posted, so that parents could make complaints, get the videos off of the air and ensure that the perpetrators paid for what they did.
Turns out it was the americans who originally found these videos and it was the americans who were quoted in one of the newspaper reports as being in full support of this young lad and his family. The americans were talking about these videos well before we were in the UK.
Come on mumsnetters, get your head out of the sand. If that child had been my child, i would have expected better from fellow parents, i would have expected you to tackle this issue and do all you could to get the videos off the net and to make your voices heard.
Mumsnetters who use this board for most of their information would have been at a loss of even knowing the videos existed, seeing as they were removed from here.
If a mumsnetter found it painful to watch these videos, imagine how painful it must have been for the boy, much less his parents.
If parents dont stick together who will?? No one is going to change anything for our kids except parents and in this instance, it was parent power who brought these videos to a head and who had them removed and who got the kids expelled, possibly facing prosecution. On behalf of my own son who is autistic, i say thank you to those parents who used their voice and didnt put their head in the sand.