MARLBORO, Massachusetts, USA: A former special-needs elementary school teacher has been sentenced to probation for assaulting a five-year-old autistic boy by sitting on him and force-feeding him peaches.

Laurie Brennan, 35, pleaded guilty to assault and battery at Marlboro District Court on May 2, and was sentenced to six months in jail, a term which was suspended. She was instead ordered to serve two years of probation, do 300 hours of community service and write a letter of apology to the boy's parents.

"I knew he would be beaten, teased and bullied, but I didn't know it would be someone in Laurie Brennan's position," said the boy's mother, Debi MacLean.

The charges stem from incident at the Mulready School on March 6, 2002, where other teachers reported seeing the 160-pound Brennan sitting on 40-pound Grey MacLean. According to court records, Brennan also held the boy down and forced peaches down his throat, which made him vomit.

Judge Thomas Sullivan sentenced Brennan to six months in jail, then suspended the sentence in favour of two years' supervised probation. Brennan must serve 300 hours of community service and write a letter of apology to the boy's parents, Debi and Michael MacLean. She was also ordered to not work with special-needs children, or take a job with a school, camp or youth organisation.

Debi MacLean, who read a statement at the hearing, was elated with the sentence. "When I went in there, I was very discouraged. To walk out with a sentence it was elation, it was wonderful," she said. "It's what she deserved."

HOGANSVILLE, Georgia, USA: A former principal of Hogansville Elementary School has been found guilty of simple battery for slapping a five-year-old autistic boy at the school.

Peggy Smith, who faces a possible 12 months in jail and a US$1,000 fine at sentencing on April 14, admitted she had slapped the child after he head-butted her chin and hit her in the ear.

"I’d never done anything like this before and I don’t know why I did it," Smith testified at her non-jury trial in March.

State Court Judge Jeannette Little had delayed issuing a verdict, saying she wanted to review case law submitted by both sides.

"I’m obviously disappointed ... There’s no better word for it," said Smith’s attorney, David Dunham of Griffin.

The judge called on the morning of April 9 to inform him of the verdict.

"That’s a shock," Troup County schools Superintendent Roy Nichols said as soon as he heard.. "There’s no way I would ever have anticipated such a ruling. I’m not a judge or lawyer, but I thought pre-meditation and intent to do harm was necessary. But I guess I’m wrong."

At the trial, solicitor Jack Kirby had compared it to slapping an old person or a pregnant woman, adding: "The condition of the victim makes it all the more important that it be treated seriously."

On October 23, the student had been playing outside and threw a tantrum when a teacher took him back into the building. Smith sat in a chair and pulled him on to her lap, telling him to calm down, but "he butted me with his head under my chin," Smith testified. "It was pretty hard. It hurt my whole jaw. I slid out of the chair and laid my hands over his. I was on my knees in front of him, and he tried to bite me. He jerked my hand away and hit me in the ear. I hit him on the side of the face."

Dunham called the slapping an "involuntary, instantaneous action" that was in self-defence. He said his client was a victim of prosecutorial "second-guessing and hindsight."

Smith, 50, has been reassigned as a technical support specialist.

BBC News Online, 12/03/2003

Britain's Department of Health has been forced to deny rumours that it plans to make the combined MMR (measles, mumps, rubella) vaccine compulsory for children before they can start school. 

Anxious parents have been deluging the Department with enquiries in the last few days after reading claims that Ministers intend to bar infants from school unless they have a certificate signed by a National Health Service doctor to prove they have been immunised. 

The Department has also denied speculation that the triple jab will be replaced with a four-in-one vaccine against measles, mumps, rubella and chickenpox. 

In a statement posted on its official MMR website, the Department of Health stated: "We have received a number of enquiries from parents concerned about rumours suggesting the MMR vaccine becoming compulsory.
None of the childhood vaccinations available in the UK are compulsory. They are all offered on a voluntary basis. There are no plans to alter this policy." 

The statement also ruled out a four-in-one vaccine and said that officials were "not aware" of such a product being available for use in the UK. 

Worried parents began contacting the Department after it was claimed that jabs would become mandatory in order for children to start school. 

A message posted on the website run by the vaccine pressure group, JABS, claimed that, under the new rules, infants would be banned from school unless their parents could prove they had been given the MMR vaccine. It claimed: "We have learned there will be a compulsory vaccine next year. It will be possible to obtain this only via an NHS GP who has to sign a certificate which then allows your child entry into school. Without it - no school." 

It added: "Parents who decide not to immunise could then be prosecuted under the Education Act for Truancy." 

The Guardian, 11/03/2003

England's top family judge, Dame Elizabeth Butler-Sloss, has overruled a decision by doctors caring for an autistic teenager with acute kidney failure that he should not be offered a kidney transplant, but just given palliative care once dialysis became impossible.

The case went to the High Court after doctors clashed over the issue with the 18-year-old's parents, backed by their local authority. His mother has offered to donate one of her kidneys to him. A court order prevents identification of the parties in the case, including the teenager, named only as S. 

Dame Elizabeth, president of the High Court's family division, delivered judgment last week after hearing the case in private. She said: "The sanctity of life is a fundamental principle and there is a very strong presumption in favour of a course of action which would prolong life." 

S has been undergoing dialysis for nearly three years since his kidneys failed. He has no need of a transplant at present, but doctors wanted to rule out the operation once it was no longer possible to continue dialysis. 

They told the court his severe learning difficulties and behavioural problems would cause huge post-operative problems if a transplant were performed, and wanted it ruled out in the absence of new developments in medical science. 

His parents, supported by the official solicitor, Laurence Oates, argued that the option should be left often. Last week they were backed by the judge, who declared: "The possibility of a kidney transplantation should not be excluded on non-medical grounds." 

She added: "The need for blood tests, the use of needles and the likelihood of several returns to hospital post-operation do not seem to me to be insuperable obstacles. 

"On balance, however, if the medical reasons for a kidney transplantation are in his favour, and alternative methods of dialysis are no longer viable, in my judgment, a kidney transplantation ought not to be rejected on the grounds of his inability to understand the purpose and consequences of the operation or concerns about his management. 

"It is crucial that S, suffering, as he does, from serious physical and mental problems, is not given less satisfactory treatment than a person who has full capacity to understand the risks, the pain and discomfort inseparable from such major surgery. To act in any other way would be contrary to the rights of a mentally incapacitated patient both under our domestic law and under the European convention." 

The Children's Society said: "This is a red letter day for people with learning disabilities throughout the country. All people, no matter what their learning disabilities are, have a right to life. This outcome sets a precedent on how they will be treated by the medical profession when their lives depend on having major surgery." 

OTTAWA, Canada: Four severely autistic men continue to live in a converted 150-year-old farm-house, amid rat and mouse droppings which must be cleaned up daily. The danger of fire is so great that the fire marshal has ordered staff to conduct hourly fire inspections at night.

The Ontario Ministry of Community, Family and Children's Services has asked the agency responsible to find alternate accommodation for the four men "as soon as possible." According to internal documents of the Ottawa Valley Autistic Homes obtained by the Citizen, Wynn Turner, the association's former executive director, sought funding from the Ministry in August 2000 to build a new facility for the residents of the deteriorating Progress House, as the facility on Innes Road is called.

After health inspections in December 2000, and February 9 and April 4, 2001, the city health department found that Progress House was "not a suitable premises to operate a group residence. Alternate arrangements should be made to accommodate residents immediately."

Despite this warning, the autistic residents were not moved. Because of their condition, the four residents remain unaware of the controversy swirling around the conditions of their home.

For the employees who provide 24-hour care to the residents, Progress House is a health, safety and structural nightmare. Agency workers have complained that rat and mouse droppings, which must be cleaned up daily, suggest infestation. At one point, an order was issued to remove accumulating bat faeces from the attic after it began to cause a sickening stench throughout the house.