At what point is someone able to follow their own set of rules? Although this may seem like a harsh anecdote, it is a true story and with proper training and policies, special needs students can be productive members of the classroom. Through my experience the point of someone getting their own special rule book, the line should never be drawn with a student that is attempting to be integrated with mainstream society. But, apparently at the elementary school I attended the line was drawn at a mentally handicap student. If a child with Asberger Syndrome became violent with a seemingly "normal" student there seems to be no punishment, yet if it were the seemingly "normal" student that was violent the rules were fully enforced and disciplinary action was enforced as well. There seems to be a double standard there.

Asberger Syndrome (AS) is an autism spectrum disorder (ASD) that is characterized by significant difficulties in social interaction, alongside restricted, repetitive and obsessive patterns of behavior and interests. These symptoms are sometimes and in this case accompanied by limited empathy and violent outbursts. This instance is about my experience with a student in my fifth grade class who was diagnosed with AS.

From when the class first met this student, we knew he was "different", but aren't we all. We had been told by administration that he had a disability, "okay not a big deal," I thought. The year started off uneventful, nothing but a few mild disruptions during class discussions. Nothing too noticeable began until he joined my gifted class, after-all he was very intelligent. One day during the gifted class I had answered a question incorrectly, he then promptly responded by calling me a "dumba**." I explained the situation to the teacher who then said to me, "well were you being one?" I was absolutely flabbergasted by what she said. I believe if she had been properly trained to educate students with those types of disabilities, the situation could have turned into a positive, learning experience. But, this was when I first realized the inequality among two, now declared different people.

After my parents found out about this they scheduled a meeting with the principal who was unwilling to accept that there were any issues going on with this student. Thus, no disciplinary action was put in place.

What began after that was a phase of me being bullied and unfairly treated by the district in way of being told that because of his disability, he didn't have to follow the same rules.

The next phase tormented me emotionally for months, making me not want to go to school most days and crying as I went to sleep at night. The student began getting violent by kicking or hitting me or anyone else that got in his way. Nothing was done to counteract his misbehavior. Next, was a streak of repetitive directed towards me. At school he would threaten me saying that he would strangle me or bring a steak knife from home and stab me. Was this acceptable behavior for the school environment, let alone any environment? One time at school it got so bad, he tried choking me. I talked to my parents about it, they went straight to the school and school board. I thought this would be a turning point, but it only resulted in a one day suspension for the student with AS.

Through meetings with the principal of my school and a school board official, I found out there was actually a completely different set of procedures and rules for special needs students. Why is there such a difference? There needs to be a compromise of these two sides. At what point must the line be drawn?

With proper procedures, policies, and rules most of this could've been avoided. I believe in the best of circumstances this kind of bad behavior can be curbed. But, there are many factors, the school is just the tip of the iceberg. What goes on at home could influence a lot of this, both sides need to be able to work together to help the student and everyone else.

I'm all for helping these students. We shouldn't completely exile them from our society. We must help them. These incidents play a major role in the shaping of his adult life. Incidents like this would absolutely not be tolerated in the workplace. We're not helping them by excusing them from these thing, we're crippling them, crippling them for life.