An exerpt follows from this story from KXLY.com which reports on the handcuffing and subsequent detention of eight-year-old Evelyn Towry, a third grade at Kootenai Elemenary who has Asperger's Syndrome after she was told she couldn't wear a cow costume to a Christmas party:
"She wanted to attend a Christmas party in her cow sweatshirt and they told her she couldn't that she would have to tuck the tail in and put ears down and she dug her heels in the way she does quite often and said she wouldn't take it off," Evelyn's mom Spring said.Why didn't teachers just let Evelyn wear a cow costume to the party? What were they thinking?
Spring says that when Evelyn tried to leave anyway two teachers restrained her, which is when Evelyn began kicking, pinching and spitting on the teachers.
"Well, I kicked because I was upset they were holding me down and I got thumb bruises on me," Evelyn said.
School officials then called the police and Evelyn's mom. When Spring got to school to pick her daughter up police were already escorting Evelyn in handcuffs out of the building and into a police cruiser. Police then took her to a local juvenile detention center where she stayed for an hour, after which she was allowed to go home.
See also Kristina Chew's post about this at Autistic.change.org and the discussion that follows in the comments section.
