Stopped at a Dairy Queen from seeing Charie’s neurologist. Charlie stood very close to a woman who was ordering at the window and moved towards us when I called him, and certainly experienced nothing like a Canadian woman, Erica Gosselin, did while recently taking two autistic boys to a DQ. Another reader referred to the (unhappy) reaction of another customer in a letter to the Alliston Herald:
Erica explained that she has a summer job working with these two autistic boys. They are brothers, and the younger one has a more serious form of autism than his sibling; for one thing, he has less physical control.
At least once a week, Erica takes them to the Dairy Queen as a special treat. On this particular occasion, the one she writes about, a man sitting behind them started yelling at her and with frequent use of the “f” word he shouted, “Can’t you control that … kid, I’m trying to eat my … lunch.”
Even when Erica explained about the autism, he continued his abusive language. I was sorry to read that neither a staff person at the Dairy Queen or any other customer offered some kind of support.
Autism creates a serious problem for the one afflicted and the family. They deserve our understanding and probably get it most of the time. This blast from a Dairy Queen customer, we can only hope, is the exception.
I wonder how this man would deal with an autistic child if he was the father? He might learn something. Let’s hope there is enough reaction to this incident that he will feel a certain remorse providing any of the story gets to him.
Understanding first—-it goes a long, long way.
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