Jon Katz at  Underdog unearthed an old blawg post from  Deaf Law Blog about police firing on a deaf driver because he didn’t obey their commands.  They shouted at the driver in English and Spanish, and then fired.

Disabilities, such as those affecting hearing and sight, are fairly easy for the abled to comprehend.  You can’t order a blind person to see or a deaf person to hear.  Not if you’re a cop.  Not even if you’re a judge.  And not if you’re a parent.

But there is a spectrum of disabilities that are far harder to appreciate and comprehend, particularly when dealing with children, and they have enormous potential to wreak havoc.  Consider developmentally-disabled children who may lash out in school against teachers, aides and other students, when they are given commands that conflict with whatever way their brains are wired.  Often brought on by the adults running the show, these students react in a relatively predictable fashion, predictable to someone who understands their issues and recognizes the cues that bring on frustration, even terror.

All too often, when something happens that will cause a child to act out in a violent fashion, the teacher or school will contact police to deal with the situation.  This is caused by the confluence of events, with teachers refusing to deal with violence, zero-tolerance policies, lack of understanding of the child, inability or refusal to recognize that it is the teacher’s failure to understand what causes the child to become violent.

When the police arrive, they have no idea, nor any particular reason to have any idea, of the impact of the child’s developmental disability.  They will treat the student like any other, giving orders and demanding compliance upon pain of arrest and even violence.  Of course, this creates a collision course, since the developmentally disabled child is incapable of understanding, and therefore complying, with the commands. Indeed, screaming commands under frantic circumstances will almost invariably exacerbate the situation, creating the scenario for tragedy.

Unlike a blind or deaf student, with whom a teacher has far greater understanding of the disability and can provide police with an explanation of why the student cannot do whatever he or she is being ordered to do, many teachers lack a sufficient understanding to either recognize the student’s limitations or convey that information quickly and effectively to police.  In other words, there is no way to alert police to the real problem.

It should also be noted that this potentially tragic scenario isn’t limited to school settings.  The developmentally disabled also go out in the real world, and confront the same problems on their own.  They don’t necessarily have any outward signs of disability, like funny-looking faces or tattoos on their foreheads, and there is nothing to overtly alert police that they should be treated differently than anyone else.

While there is no magic bullet solution to this situation, there are some things that should be done to limit the potential for harm to these children.  For those who live in smaller communities, parents should bring their children to visit their local police department.  Create a level of comfort between child and police officers (which will alleviate a degree of fear) and introduce the child to the officers.  Once the officers meet and get some clue that the child has issues, they will both be sensitized to the potential problems and aware of your child’s special needs.  The time to do this is before a problem arises.  After may be too late.

It is also critical that parents sit down with school officials, teachers and aides to discuss what may bring on violent or aggressive behavior, such as transitions, disruption of routine and over-stimulation (i.e., loud noises, disruptive classrooms, fire drills).  Inappropriate reactions by developmentally-disabled children are to be anticipated, and by planning ahead for them, a parent can protect his child from the “surprise” when they do.

With significant numbers of children with ADHD, autism, Fragile X Syndrome in classrooms, and that is where they will be placed based upon the legal preference for inclusion, schools and police need to be prepared to deal with them properly.  But ultimately, it is always the parents who must make sure that their children are safe.