AGXStarseed
Well-Known Member
(Not written by me)
LUKE KIRKEBY/ FAIRFAX NZ
Harley Fletcher Fraser just wants to enjoy playing in his front yard and street without being blamed.
While many kids spend their days inside in front of a screen Harley Fletcher Fraser would prefer to be outside riding his bike.
The problem is almost every time the Taupo 12-year-old does, neighbours tell him to go away.
Harley is autistic and suffers from various underlying conditions such as Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), Oppositional Defiant Disorder (ODD), and separation anxiety which sometimes cause him to act and think differently from other kids.
His parents Shaun Fletcher and Sarah Fraser believe a lack of understanding of these differences is causing their neighbours to "single him out" as a bad kid and blame him for anything that goes wrong.
This has included being blamed for removing screws from a car door, the disappearance of a box of curtains left on a porch, and household tools going missing.
"We have been renting here for just over a year and during the last three or four months it has got to the point where he literally can't even ride his bike," Fraser said.
"If he rides on the corner of our front lawn or on the footpath he gets in trouble with the neighbours but they don't have a problem with other kids doing it and he is not allowed to touch a tree in the corner of the section either even though it is on our property," Fletcher said.
"We have explained his issues to everyone but everyone has singled him out. He is by no means perfect but we do watch him 24/7," she said.
Fraser said the trouble amplified after Harley, who only started school two years ago due to his condition, visited a neighbour and took a ring without realising its value.
"He has a fascination with metals but because of his conditions he doesn't understand about their value. When he showed it to us we made him immediately take it back and apologise and he has learnt from that," she said.
SOURCE: http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/77239146/neighbours-forcing-autistic-kid-indoors
LUKE KIRKEBY/ FAIRFAX NZ
Harley Fletcher Fraser just wants to enjoy playing in his front yard and street without being blamed.
While many kids spend their days inside in front of a screen Harley Fletcher Fraser would prefer to be outside riding his bike.
The problem is almost every time the Taupo 12-year-old does, neighbours tell him to go away.
Harley is autistic and suffers from various underlying conditions such as Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), Oppositional Defiant Disorder (ODD), and separation anxiety which sometimes cause him to act and think differently from other kids.
His parents Shaun Fletcher and Sarah Fraser believe a lack of understanding of these differences is causing their neighbours to "single him out" as a bad kid and blame him for anything that goes wrong.
This has included being blamed for removing screws from a car door, the disappearance of a box of curtains left on a porch, and household tools going missing.
"We have been renting here for just over a year and during the last three or four months it has got to the point where he literally can't even ride his bike," Fraser said.
"If he rides on the corner of our front lawn or on the footpath he gets in trouble with the neighbours but they don't have a problem with other kids doing it and he is not allowed to touch a tree in the corner of the section either even though it is on our property," Fletcher said.
"We have explained his issues to everyone but everyone has singled him out. He is by no means perfect but we do watch him 24/7," she said.
Fraser said the trouble amplified after Harley, who only started school two years ago due to his condition, visited a neighbour and took a ring without realising its value.
"He has a fascination with metals but because of his conditions he doesn't understand about their value. When he showed it to us we made him immediately take it back and apologise and he has learnt from that," she said.
SOURCE: http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/77239146/neighbours-forcing-autistic-kid-indoors
