Wednesday, October 29, 2008

autistic middle school student starts school club for autism speaks

I was very interested to read the following excerpt from an email that I received from the Florida chapter of autism speaks:

Walk Team News Congratulations to David McKibbin (a young man with ASD) for starting the first Palm Beach County Student Club for Autism Speaks at Bak Middle School of the Arts. Recently we spent a day at the school talking to students about autism and how student involvement can change the lives of everyone at the school. Meet David at the Kick-off Luncheon on December 3. The Bak Student Club for Autism Speaks has already started their fund raising efforts by selling candy during lunch. We want to spotlight you and your team fund raising efforts! Send your fund raising story to palmbeach@autismspeaks.org and see it in an upcoming email blast.

So it would seem that contrary to what some persons in the neurodiversity movement believe there are some persons with autism who do support what autism speaks does and their research. These proponents of neurodiversity give persons the misguided idea that the vast majority of persons on the autistic spectrum think exactly as they do. Though some of the criticisms that certain people make about autism speaks may possibly be justified, such as the fact they are like a big corporate entity that spends money on salaries, jets and other frills that could be going to autism research, they are a good organization in some respects in that they fund research that will hopefully someday lead to a cure for this dreaded disease or if that is not possible at least prevention. Prevention, not abortion, meaning that the person will have a shot at a better life. This is yet another example where neurodiversity is mistaken about at least some autistic persons not wanting a cure.

Some of them may claim that as a middle school student, David Mckibbin may be too young to know any better and may have been fed propaganda or been indoctrinated by his parents. However, one must remember 14-year-old Kelly Beck who made the nasty website NT speaks and when autism speaks threatened legal action she was forced to close it down. In fact, she did not even want her parents to know about it as I recall.

Hopefully, to the chagrin of the ND movement, there will be more student clubs like this and more and more autistics who have the good sense to promote research leading to curation and prevention.

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

Kelly's parents knew from the start. Get your facts straight before publishing, mister.

jonathan said...

Hi there, you can do a search on NT speaks military school and see what Kelly wrote on aspies for freedom:

Minors cant do counter sue's and i dont want my parents to know about it. if they do i swear ill be disowned, or send to military school or something.

here is the link do you have any documentation refuting this? If not, perhaps it is you who should get their facts straight.

Anonymous said...

I am Kelly's grandmother. They knew from the start. She didn't know that they knew, and she was wrong about their attitude. Again, get your facts right, mister.

jonathan said...

interesting that kelly's grandma would have an IP address in Australia or maybe you are phil Gluyas in disguise.

Anonymous said...

He'll be along to deny it any second now.

jonathan said...

Well that is really not relevant because Phil Gluyas is now persona non grata on autism's gadfly, he is not allowed to comment here. I have enabled comment moderation and any comment he makes will be rejected.

Anonymous said...

However, one must remember 14-year-old Kelly Beck who made the nasty website NT speaks and when autism speaks threatened legal action she was forced to close it down.

Talking of getting yours facts straight;

http://www.aspiesforfreedom.com/showthread.php?tid=11706

They dropped the charges. She wasn't "forced" to do anything. She chose to shut it down.

jonathan said...

actually it is a matter of semantics. She chose to shut it down because AS threatened her with litigation and she did not want her parents to find out and punish her. If they had said pretty please with lots of sugar on it I don't think she would have voluntarily shut down the web site. Ergo, she was forced to shut it down to avoid punishment by her parents and possibly her parents having to cough up $90,000 though the monetary figure may have been conjured up by ND persons as Jo Ellen Ruby of the autism about blog quoted someone from autism speaks saying that this was not true.

Anonymous said...

A middle school student running a club about autism speaks? That's a very terrific thing for a kid to do despite his disability! :) I gotta give him credit.

However, the 'cure' debate with individuals on the autistic spectrum isn't going to get you, me or anyone else for that matter anywhere. I realize it's tough being autistic, but spending time on people's blogs arguing and trying to convince them to change their opinion to your own one leads you to controlling others which you cannot do.

I reccommend you see a speech-language pathologist rather than be an eternal 'case manager' patient of a psychologist who can only give you suggestions and attempt to make you feel better. It's not just a silly script- it really changes how you approach, communicate and deal with people as well as getting yourself to manage and deal with your everyday life. You will function and feel much more confident.

Again, I reccommend doing this. I'm not pushing you to do it, but in my opinion, you have enough challenges in your life that cause you to feel resentment towards others you feel are doing well or better than you.

When you spend a large portion of your life on the Internet persevering over an autism cure, you're making things appear worse than they really are.

People who are a part of neurodiversity are those who either see or try so hard to see the glass half-empty but would likely take the pill anyway if there was such a thing. But hey! What good does it do to waste your time on such a subject? If someone believes there's nothing wrong with them, then let that person be. If you see someone posting constantly and is always preaching about anti-cures, there's a good shot this individual has serious issues and truly wishes to get help but doesn't know how to. Why else would anyone want to meet others who have the same or similar label as them online and in person?

Anonymous said...

No, the threat from Autism Speaks was gone. They couldn't sue her because she was a minor.

But you may be right about the rest of that, especially the parents. So where's grandma? LOL