Bus Blow-Up

Nathan had another meltdown today.

I had just arrived at work when the school called. The timing couldn't have been much worse, as far as work was concerned. Here we were incredibly short-handed and I had to leave my poor coworker to hold down the fort, completely alone. She was unbelievably supportive, though! (Made me glad I work at this company, instead of the type of places I've worked for in the past).

Nathan had flipped out on the school bus. They told me on the phone that they couldn't get him off the bus at all. I called dh at work to let him know what was going on, and the school called again while I was on the line, and left a message that they had removed Nathan from the bus, and he was now in the school gym. Hoo boy. This couldn't be good. I can't imagine who they enlisted to remove my son, and what kind of hell they went through in their attempt. I was anxious to find out how traumatic this had all been for my son.

When I arrived, Nathan was sprawled across the gym floor, looking like a trapped animal. His shoes were off, apparently thrown across the room. (Not at anybody, I hope). His glasses were thrown as well, but somehow survived. (Those glasses have been unexpectedly resiliant.)

I finally got Nathan calmed down, but the principal said she wasn't confident that Nathan had completely recovered from his meltdown. She suggested that we leave, but come back later when he was in a better state of mind. So that's what I did. By the time we returned, he was his normal self. He'd be okay, as long as nothing major happened.

It turns out that the whole incident was caused by the bus driver announcing that she was inforcing a seating chart, starting tomorrow. The kids would all have assigned seats. This was just too big of a change for Nathan to handle. He completely flipped out.

I'm going to drive him to school tomorrow. I can just see that bus being too upsetting for him, with the new seat and all, too soon after the explosion. And God only knows how the kids will treat him on the bus. I wouldn't count on them being kind; not considering their past history.

After work, dh told me that Nathan had "another incident" at school today, during lunch. However, this time they said "it wasn't his fault." Apparently, Nathan was eating lunch with his friend, and a couple other kids came up and started giving Nathan a hard time. Nathan got ticked off, and there was some kind of altercation. (I don't know if it was a physical fight, an argument, or what). Geez, nothing like throwing gasoline on an already burning fire. Nathan didn't get in any trouble, though, because they knew the other kids instigated it. They got in trouble instead.

I wish I knew what to do. I don't know how to help him. I'm sitting there hating the idea of me working and not being home with him, and hating that when he went ballistic today there was no one there who understood what was going on with him or why he was so upset, and hating that he was on the floor in the gym looking like a trapped animal when I arrived. I'm wishing there were people who could help him, make him feel less alone, teach him how to cope when he feels like exploding. I'm wondering if I should have kept him home and homeschooled him, or I'm wishing there was a school that was experienced with autism. I wish there weren't bullies to make his already difficult life that much harder. And just when I'm ready to cave in to tears, I pull a paper out of his backpack. It's his report card.

He received all E's. (like straight A's)

Gotta wonder how a little boy can face a world that is so harsh to him, battle his own inner battles on a daily basis, deal with bullies at a nearly constant onslaught, and still come home smiling with a great report card.