Most of us know what it’s like to struggle with a kid who’s being disruptive in public. (The hostile stares. The sympathetic looks.) We take them out of the room. Or the museum. Or the restaurant. It’s a one-off thing that’s not usually a big deal. Even if it spoils your day.

But what if your child has a medical condition that makes it tough to take them anywhere? Ever? What if you could never go to church as a family for fear your child would shatter the peace, or never eat out?

Kay and I were talking this morning about the severely-autistic 13-year-old boy who’s been barred from Roman Catholic mass because the church says he’s a danger to others.

The Church of St. Joseph in Bertha, Minn., filed a temporary restraining order stopping Carol and John Race from bringing their 225-pound son, Adam, to church. An affidavit says Adam struck a child during mass, fought efforts to restrain him, pulled an adolescent girl to his lap and revved the engine of someone else’s car. The family in turn says their requests for accommodation - such as clearing aisles when the family leaves the church - haven’t been fulfilled.

The clash comes at a time when there’s both a rising incidence of autism and a growing willingness on the part of families to bring them out in society, instead of isolating them at home or in an institution.

Here’s the story in today’s paper about the ongoing tussle, which goes to court in June.

And here’s the first story last week, with accounts from both priest and parents on what it’s been like to have Adam in church.

We’d like to hear from parents of autistic kids or kids with other medical conditions on what you do. What public spaces do you venture out to? What do you avoid? Any creative ways of explaining the situation to strangers? What do you think is reasonable for others to accommodate? And what do other parents think is reasonable accommodation?

This entry was posted on Tuesday, May 20th, 2008 at 11:21 am and is filed under Family Life, Related Articles. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.