After 14-year-old Casey Reilly, who has Asperger?s, was excluded from week-long scouting trip, which prevented him from advancing in rank, his parents filed a lawsuit against the Pacific Palisades Boy Scout Troop 223—-more recently, in Wisconsin, after one visit to Girl Scout Brownie troop for girls with special needs in Oconomowoc, the troop’s leaders told 8-year-old Magi Klages’ parents not to bring her back. Magi is autistic and, after graduating from a Daisy troop, she wanted to continue with Brownies. A local Brownie troop with 22 girls was too overwhelming so her parents, Michele and Kevin Klages, decided to try the troop for special needs children. Magi’s first meeting at the group was difficult, understandably, as she was faced with a completely new routine:
In the new group, with her dad beside her and her mother behind, Magi didn’t like sitting in “circle time” and sharing, Michele explained. When she bit herself, her parents spoke to her. When she threw a fit, her mother pulled her off by herself. When they worked on a mat-weaving project, she did fine. At one point she got up and ran, but her dad caught up.
“That was the extent of what she did,” Michele said. “It was a new experience for her. With any child with autism, it takes a few times. Routine is important.”
So when a troop co-leader called them Monday and told them not to bring Magi back because of her behavior and their concern for the safety of the other girls, the Klageses were upset.
“I never expected my child to be discriminated against,” Michele said. “Never in a million years.” Especially, she said, from a troop leader who had a child with special needs herself.
“The Girl Scouts are not above discrimination,” she’s concluded.
The Klages have been contacting both local and national headquarters without satisfaction.
Some commenters responded with a lot of frustrationto Casey Reilly’s story with accounts about autistic children in their local troops. According to the website of the Girl Scouts, the organization has “a long history of adapting activities to girls who have disabilities, special needs, and chronic illnesses” and considers diversity one of its core values—-surely there’s a way to make Magi’s wish to be a Brownie possible?
Tags: , asd, asperger, autism, autism blog, boy scouts, brownies, disabilities blog, disability, Education, girl scout, HealthShare This
Original source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/b5media/AutismVox/~3/o9p9d2TL4i0/
