A judge said the student, now 18, showed no remorse for the beating. His mother said he has mental health conditions and needs help.
A Florida student accused of beating a school employee unconscious after she confiscated his Nintendo Switch last year was sentenced to five years in prison Tuesday, court records show.
Brendan Depa, 18, pleaded no contest to one count of aggravated battery on an elected official or education employee, according to sentencing documents from the Seventh Judicial Circuit Court in Flagler County.
Depa, who was 17 at the time of the assault, was also sentenced to 15 years of probation.
On top of that, an autism diagnosis rarely gets you any support that isn’t Applied Behavioral Analysis therapy. That’s essentially dog training for your autist (designed by the same B. F. Skinner of “Skinner box” fame using the same principals), and people who have been through it have described it as torture. The ADA doesn’t make many accommodations for folks with non-physical disabilities, and cops have no idea how to interact with folks with communication barriers and an inability to control their bodily movements. It’s tough being autistic in public. It’s tough trying to navigate our society as a parent of autistic people. With or without insurance, it’s hard. The problems are not purely financial.
I recommend some books on the subject, particularly Neurotribes by Steve Silberman and Unmasking Autism by Dr. Devon Price.