slomo » 23 Nov 2016 14:06 wrote:As I've stated in other controversial threads, I'm always willing to revise my opinion based on additional data (or lack thereof). Since we actually have someone here who has met Arrington de Dionyso and he checks out, I'm willing to back away from the idea that his art provides a sinister context.
Still: the photo of the child restrained is pretty fucked up, and it's hard to imagine a context which would make it OK, especially since in most jurisdictions I know of it would be ipso facto evidence of child abuse. I mean, it would likely be sufficient justification for CPS to swoop in and whisk the child away to foster care (or god knows what other hell). It's telling that some of you are willing to dismiss the evidence without having viewed it.
I'm not dismissing it I'm asking you to re examine it since you've seen it.
You do science to things apparently. A fundamental part of that is trying to find ways to prove your ideas wrong to test them strongly against anything that could challenge their validity.
Are you 100% confident or even confident within a reasonable margin of error that the photo you are talking about could only come from private abuse and not from something like these following stories then fine, but are you?
Boy with autism locked in 'cage', NSW school being investigatedMother alleges her autistic son was restrained with ankle straps and weighted belt at NSW schoolFrom the second story.
David Roy, an academic from the University of Newcastle who helped instigate a state-wide parliamentary inquiry into special needs students, said he had heard of hundreds of similar incidents.
"Very sadly it's not a surprise. I have recordings of incidents in various schools in New South Wales," he said.
Mr Roy described the restraining devices as unlawful and said they led to children being treated like prisoners.
"These children have a disability and they are often reacting to the environment around them," he said.
...
Rosie said she held concerns for children who attended the school in the future.
"My concern is that this will continue and other kids will end up in the same situation as our boy," she said.
"The other concern is that if we move him somewhere else, the same thing will happen.
"I want to make sure that something is done systematically.
"We can target the particular school all we like but it's happening everywhere.
"It feels like the Department of Education just doesn't care."
(BTW The mother - Rosie - was reported to the dept of education for removing her child from school after objecting to his treatment. Nice.)
One more quote from the second story:
Rosie said she did not blame the staff at the school, but said the department had left them hanging.
"I do actually empathise; they have not been afforded extra training to cope with children such as mine and are largely unsupported," she said.
"My son is locked up because the staff don't know what else to do with him."
Rosie said she had met with the school and asked to see the chair and the cage-like structure where her son had been kept.
"I didn't know the chairs even existed, so it was a shock to me when I saw them," she said.
"Since this [Facebook] post has gone up, I've had messages from people saying they've had kids at the same school with the same trouble, but before that I was completely oblivious ... I thought it was just us."
This is epidemic in NSW, and as the mum in the story says its a situation where there are inadequate resources to deal with the problems that arise. Do you think this problem only exists in NSW or Australia?
And as I said if there is other info in that photo that makes you discount that sort of explanation for its existence then that's fine.
(Also I consider restraining kids like that a form of abuse. But its not necessarily malicious abuse, more something that happens because the teachers in the situation have no other way they can see to deal with that child and the other kids they are responsible for.)