{"id":32436,"date":"2012-12-20T21:46:08","date_gmt":"2012-12-21T01:46:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/miserybay.usanethosting.com\/wordpress\/?p=32436"},"modified":"2012-12-20T21:46:08","modified_gmt":"2012-12-21T01:46:08","slug":"now-51","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stjindy.com\/archive1\/now-51\/","title":{"rendered":"Now and Then"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Winter Wonderland, Adam\u2019s mother \u2014 and we\u2019re still #1
\nby Jean Martin
\nWelcome students to a Winter Wonderland<\/strong>
\n\"\"When school resumes for Sandy Hook, it will be in a new building. Parent-volunteers are working to ensure that the students are welcomed back by a winter wonderland with the entire school decorated with as many unique snowflakes as possible. We encourage senders to be as creative as possible, remembering that no two snowflakes are alike.
\nPlease make and send snowflakes by January 12, 2013
\nConnecticut PTSA
\n60 Connolly Parkway
\nBuilding 12, Suite 103
\nHamden, CT 06514<\/p>\n

* * *<\/p>\n

A lot has been said and is going to be said about gun control in the aftermath of the latest school shooting. Up north here one of the churches holds an annual gun raffle to benefit the Catholic school. The prize, however, could not be considered an assault rifle unless you are one of the ubiquitous deer who stand in the roads up here and dare you to take them out.
\nThere is another piece to the school shooting puzzle that has received far less attention. Anyone who has had any serious dealings with the mental health system will recognize the frustrations the mother of the shooter must have encountered. As the parents of a son who is deaf and blind, we long ago learned that patience is not always a virtue when dealing with a broken system. Our situation was not desperate in the same way as the one Adam\u2019s mother faced, but it took Herculean effort to get appropriate care for our son. In Adam\u2019s case all of that mother\u2019s efforts were not enough to overcome the inertia of an underfunded, unresponsive system.
\nAnd yes, folks, Clinton County is still have the dubious distinction of being number one in the dead schoolchildren sweepstakes. Twenty children were shot in Connecticut last Friday, but in 1927 Andrew Kehoe managed to kill 38 in Bath, Michigan. That unspeakable act attracted attention and brought an outpourings of compassion from all over the world. Schoolchildren in Bath, England even sent their pennies for the purchase a memorial. [See an album and story here<\/a>]<\/p>\n

* * *<\/p>\n

The following article has appeared several places, but we believe it sheds light on another aspect of the Sandy Hook shootings:
\nI Am Adam Lanza\u2019s Mother<\/strong>
\nby Liza Long
\nThree days before 20-year-old Adam Lanza killed his mother, then opened fire on a classroom full of Connecticut Kindergartners, my 13-year-old son Michael (name changed) missed his bus because he was wearing the wrong color pants.
\n“I can wear these pants,” he said, his tone increasingly belligerent, the black-hole pupils of his eyes swallowing the blue irises.
\n“They are navy blue,” I told him. “Your school’s dress code says black or khaki pants only.”
\n“They told me I could wear these,” he insisted. “You’re a stupid bitch. I can wear whatever pants I want to. This is America. I have rights!”
\n“You can’t wear whatever pants you want to,” I said, my tone affable, reasonable. “And you definitely cannot call me a stupid bitch. You’re grounded from electronics for the rest of the day. Now get in the car, and I will take you to school.”
\nI live with a son who is mentally ill. I love my son. But he terrifies me.
\nA few weeks ago, Michael pulled a knife and threatened to kill me and then himself after I asked him to return his overdue library books. His 7- and 9-year-old siblings knew the safety planthey ran to the car and locked the doors before I even asked them to. I managed to get the knife from Michael, then methodically collected all the sharp objects in the house into a single Tupperware container that now travels with me. Through it all, he continued to scream insults at me and threaten to kill or hurt me.
\nThat conflict ended with three burly police officers and a paramedic wrestling my son onto a gurney for an expensive ambulance ride to the local emergency room. The mental hospital didn’t have any beds that day, and Michael calmed down nicely in the ER, so they sent us home with a prescription for Zyprexa and a follow-up visit with a local pediatric psychiatrist.
\nWe still don’t know what’s wrong with Michael. Autism spectrum, ADHD, Oppositional Defiant or Intermittent Explosive Disorder have all been tossed around at various meetings with probation officers and social workers and counselors and teachers and school administrators. He’s been on a slew of antipsychotic and mood-altering pharmaceuticals, a Russian novel of behavioral plans. Nothing seems to work.
\nAt the start of seventh grade, Michael was accepted to an accelerated program for highly gifted math and science students. His IQ is off the charts. When he’s in a good mood, he will gladly bend your ear on subjects ranging from Greek mythology to the differences between Einsteinian and Newtonian physics to Doctor Who. He’s in a good mood most of the time. But when he’s not, watch out. And it’s impossible to predict what will set him off.
\nSeveral weeks into his new junior high school, Michael began exhibiting increasingly odd and threatening behaviors at school. We decided to transfer him to the district’s most restrictive behavioral program, a contained school environment where children who can’t function in normal classrooms can access their right to free public babysitting from 7:30 to 1:50 Monday through Friday until they turn 18.
\nThe morning of the pants incident, Michael continued to argue with me on the drive. He would occasionally apologize and seem remorseful. Right before we turned into his school parking lot, he said, “Look, Mom, I’m really sorry. Can I have video games back today?”
\n“No way,” I told him. “You cannot act the way you acted this morning and think you can get your electronic privileges back that quickly.”
\nHis face turned cold, and his eyes were full of calculated rage. “Then I’m going to kill myself,” he said. “I’m going to jump out of this car right now and kill myself.”
\nThat was it. After the knife incident, I told him that if he ever said those words again, I would take him straight to the mental hospital, no ifs, ands, or buts. I did not respond, except to pull the car into the opposite lane, turning left instead of right.
\n“Where are you taking me?” he said, suddenly worried. “Where are we going?”
\n“You know where we are going,” I replied.
\n“No! You can’t do that to me! You’re sending me to hell! You’re sending me straight to hell!”
\nI pulled up in front of the hospital, frantically waving for one of the clinicians who happened to be standing outside. “Call the police,” I said. “Hurry.”
\nMichael was in a full-blown fit by then, screaming and hitting. I hugged him close so he couldn’t escape from the car. He bit me several times and repeatedly jabbed his elbows into my rib cage. I’m still stronger than he is, but I won’t be for much longer.
\nThe police came quickly and carried my son screaming and kicking into the bowels of the hospital. I started to shake, and tears filled my eyes as I filled out the paperwork “Were there any difficulties with\u2026 at what age did your child\u2026 were there any problems with.. has your child ever experienced.. does your child have\u2026”
\nAt least we have health insurance now. I recently accepted a position with a local college, giving up my freelance career because when you have a kid like this, you need benefits. You’ll do anything for benefits. No individual insurance plan will cover this kind of thing.
\nFor days, my son insisted that I was lying, that I made the whole thing up so that I could get rid of him. The first day, when I called to check up on him, he said, “I hate you. And I’m going to get my revenge as soon as I get out of here.”
\nBy day three, he was my calm, sweet boy again, all apologies and promises to get better. I’ve heard those promises for years. I don’t believe them anymore.
\nOn the intake form, under the question, “What are your expectations for treatment?” I wrote, “I need help.”
\nAnd I do. This problem is too big for me to handle on my own. Sometimes there are no good options. So you just pray for grace and trust that in hindsight, it will all make sense.
\nI am sharing this story because I am Adam Lanza’s mother. I am Dylan Klebold’s and Eric Harris’s mother. I am Jason Holmes’s mother. I am Jared Loughner’s mother. I am Seung-Hui Cho’s mother. And these boysand their mothersneed help. In the wake of another horrific national tragedy, it’s easy to talk about guns. But it’s time to talk about mental illness.
\nAccording to Mother Jones, since 1982, 61 mass murders involving firearms have occurred throughout the country. Of these, 43 of the killers were white males, and only one was a woman. Mother Jones focused on whether the killers obtained their guns legally (most did). But this highly visible sign of mental illness should lead us to consider how many people in the U.S. live in fear, like I do.
\nWhen I asked my son’s social worker about my options, he said that the only thing I could do was to get Michael charged with a crime. “If he’s back in the system, they’ll create a paper trail,” he said. “That’s the only way you’re ever going to get anything done. No one will pay attention to you unless you’ve got charges.”
\nI don’t believe my son belongs in jail. The chaotic environment exacerbates Michael’s sensitivity to sensory stimuli and doesn’t deal with the underlying pathology. But it seems like the United States is using prison as the solution of choice for mentally ill people. According to Human Rights Watch, the number of mentally ill inmates in U.S. prisons quadrupled from 2000 to 2006, and it continues to risein fact, the rate of inmate mental illness is five times greater (56 percent) than in the non-incarcerated population.
\nWith state-run treatment centers and hospitals shuttered, prison is now the last resort for the mentally ill: Rikers Island, the LA County Jail and Cook County Jail in Illinois housed the nation’s largest treatment centers in 2011.
\nNo one wants to send a 13-year-old genius who loves Harry Potter and his snuggle animal collection to jail. But our society, with its stigma on mental illness and its broken healthcare system, does not provide us with other options. Then another tortured soul shoots up a fast food restaurant. A mall. A kindergarten classroom. And we wring our hands and say, “Something must be done.”
\nI agree that something must be done. It’s time for a meaningful, nation-wide conversation about mental health. That’s the only way our nation can ever truly heal.
\nGod help me. God help Michael. God help us all.
\nliza long is an author, musician, and erstwhile classicist. She is also a single mother of four bright, loved children, one of whom has special needs.
\n\"\"
\nRepublished with permission from the Blue Review, a non-profit publication affiliated with Boise State University that publishes a mix of scholarly essays and journalism.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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