Avonte Oquendo Case

I'm a parent of a child with autism spectrum disorder while my child is high functioning and verbal he can have the tendency to wander off at times if he's distracted by something he likes. He is a regular school in an ICT class (integrated co teaching) which is a mixed class of general education and special education. When I read about Avonte it broke my heart and it infuriated me as a parent of a child with autism spectrum disorder that the Board of Education could be so incompetent and negligent. This is a child who autistic non-verbal and has a reputation to be a runner and wander off is all the reason he should be watched carefully, due to the fact that children with autism do not like a lot of commotion, yelling, screaming, or to be held and touched too much. This child was in a District 75 Special Education School in Queens and it was integrated which makes me question how effective integrating mainstream kids and special needs is. A child like Avonte should have never been separated from his aide and supervised at all times. When our chancellor was questioned about this case he was very evasive about it Why? because he himself knows that Board of Education failed. They failed to protect this child, the aide failed in abandoning him, the security guards, failed to restrain him, and failed this family. Our police commissioner doesn't even consider his missing over 10 days a priority which infuriates me as a parent b/c I'm surprised that an amber alert hasn't been issued for Avonte from the very beginning and now since it's been over three weeks and he hasn't been found yet he says the chances that he's alive aren't very high which I'm hoping as a parent that he didn't suffer a bad fate but I have to wonder why wasn't an amber alert issued if they do it for missing children and missing seniors why not someone who is autistic and non-verbal? At this point I feel if they NYPD hasn't been successful they should involve the FBI I can't help but think even though I don't want to pull the race card if this child was white autistic and missing the efforts would be a lot stronger to find him. This case shows how incompetent, under qualified and how bureaucracies fail in providing our children with the services they need in order to get a proper education. Staff who works for this school should be properly trained to deal with autistic students who sometimes are non-verbal or don't like to be touched or approached aggressively. I'm also surprised that there are people who are judging this family for filing a law suit against the Board of Ed excuse me but if it weren't for their neglience, this family would still have their son. I know people can go over board with filing frivilous lawsuits but in this case it's warranted they must be held accountable for their gross neglience in failure to keep this child safe and in doors. The only thing this mother did was send her child to school and rely on a bureaucracy like the Board of Ed to educate her son and provide a safe environment for him. Everyone involved should be fired and while that may seem harsh and even unfair to some people but when you're hired to do a job you do it and you do it right. Children are precious to their families and if you can't understand that you shouldn't be working in the school system. I'm keeping this family in my thoughts and hoping he is found.