Reply #155: I have a child with autism. I feel Southwest was within their rights to [View All]

[PA Democrat]

remove the family from the flight. No child should be running uncontrolled throughout an airplane.

However....

I find the attitude that the parents weren't somehow controlling their child troubling. You obviously are CLUELESS about the challenges of raising a child with autism. I pray you never find yourself in that situation and have to put up with heartless remarks like many have made here.

My family has given up MANY typical family activities over the years because we were concerned about how our daughter would behave. We have worked diligently to help her deal with being in public. It's excruciatingly difficult work and we were fortunate because our child is higher functioning than many children with autism. But still, there were times when despite our careful planning, she had behavior issues. That's the tough thing about autism, you can't always predict what may set the child off. It's not about parents not controlling their kids. It's that the child's brain is wired very differently from a typical child's brain.