Oooh, suspense! No, nothing so fun. after a great first and second day with my troubled kiddo, the s@$! hit the fan on Thursday. He was suspended for two days for having a meltdown, throwing a notebook at another student and throwing his water bottle at the teacher. According to the principal my child ‘assaulted’ the teacher. That’s the verbiage used for throwing a water bottle.

These past few days have been a whirlwind of talking to teacher friends, special ed teacher friends, school administrator friends, my pastor, my regular friends, and my online autism parent group. It gets tricky when you suspend a kid with a disability, a kid whose disability likely caused the behavior for which you are suspending him.

So how do I flip this? There is nothing good about this situation. except… All of my amazing friends and family who rallied around to support us, help us write plans, gave us scripts and typed notes and legal and personal advice that had the principal glaring and the head of Special ed’s hands shaking in the meeting. All of the people who prayed for us, are still praying for us, who sent us positive energy, my mom who did reiki on my son from across the country. All of these people see the goodness in my child, the value in my child, the potential in my child. When I feel the world is against us and no one likes him, I can remember our battalion of warriors who came together to help us defeat the ignorance and fear that is often associated with autism. We still have a lot of work to do, and I know this journey is going to suck, but I have an amazing support team full of resources.