Thanks for the juju

T

TeDo

Guest
Thanks everyone for the juju. It might have worked. What happened is difficult child 1 had a total meltdown during Occupational Therapist (OT) today to where I had to restrain him to prevent damage to property. Of course, this made things worse but I felt I had no choice. Anyway, during the restraint, he's of course yelling at me and threatening me and trying to bite me (as the Occupational Therapist (OT) is watching in amazement). Anyway, he finally calms down just enough that I left the room. She was trying HER ways to get him to calm down (ain't happnin) more and work with her (ain't happenin). While he's sitting there, he took his Boy Scout pocket knife out of his pocket and tossed it on the mat in front of her. He'd forgotten it was in there after he'd been whittling wood before we went to Occupational Therapist (OT) (and I didn't realize he hadn't put it back). After we left, I processed with him. What caused it all was that "she changed the rules". What she's ALWAYS said before was no more and he wasn't told or consulted and she was unwilling to stick to her "rule" today (she was VERY rigid today).

Anyway, I called her later to let her know what was behind the whole thing and she politely informed me that she is a mandated reporter and so because of his verbal threats toward me and the fact that he "had a knife that he showed me", she had to report the incident......to the police.....not CPS.

Ummmm, given the fact that the threats were at the height of a meltdown and he didn't even remember the knife was in his knee pocket (cargo jeans) until after I'd left and he was hugging his legs AND that he took it out and tossed it toward her.....can anyone say OVERREACT?

Of course I was in a panic because our other legal stuff isn't over yet. After Buddy posted the juju thread, the officer the Occupational Therapist (OT) talked to called me to follow up (not the a****** cop). He told me he completely understood (his parents have worked with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) and daughter folks for years) how this can happen AND that he knows difficult child 1 and knows that when he's superanxious, he says things that are always aimed at me AND he knows I am doing all that can be done to deal with this stuff. So, all he said he's going to do is pass on the info to OUR social worker and leave it at that. No charges or visits or prosecution. He said it would accomplish nothing to do that (he needs to teach his fellow officers) since everything that can be done is in the process of being done and that punishment won't work when it was clearly nothing intentional. YEAH...finally some "reality".

So....thanks again....another crisis averted and I'm chalking it up to my wonderful board family.

THANK YOU!!
 

buddy

New Member
Hey I asked the law advocate if mandated reporters have to report if a child says something about hurting a parent.... she said ummm NOPE. the chick has it wrong (as we already knew) and the rule is that if there is a situation that puts the vulnerable person at risk of neglect or abuse, then you report to cps...a private/confidential report. DUH. What a nut. She needs to read the mandated reporter laws.

Of all people an Occupational Therapist (OT) should understand about a child with sensory integration disorder and autism not being able to handle changes and how their "engine" can suddenly run hot and she should have grabbed you a weighted blanket or some other identified calming tools and used the time for a learning opportunity for calming down.

The whole thing was nuts. Happy news is that there are no new charges to mess up the other situation.
 
B

Bunny

Guest
I'm glad the police officer reacted the way that he did. You couldn't have asked for anything better than that.
 
Top