An Autism-related Puzzle

Last week I discussed an issue with some friends of ours and their autistic teenager.

The child had lost a cell phone for the second time within three weeks. This time, the phone was hidden within the child’s backpack and the backpack was put down in a “secure” area.

The parents contacted the school and set up a meeting to discuss the missing cell phones.

They now thought it was a case of straight out theft and even possibly targeting and/or bullying.

What happened?

The parents met with school officials.

The explained the two incidents when their child had “lost” a cell phone (luckily the parents had protected the cell phone on their plan, so they did not incur the totally monetary loss of the phone).

They also explained how when the second phone had gone missing, they opened their “Find Your Phone” app and the lost phone did not appear on it (meaning the stolen phone had been wiped out of its data).

The school officials told them that they were aware of cell phones thefts at their school.

They then went on to explain that they really couldn’t do much about it except continue to be aware of the problem.

That was really all that happened.

What does all of that mean?

If it were a case of an adult, and the school had found out about it or knew about, presumably that adult would be fired.

Now, the parents of the child are guessing that perhaps there is something going on at this school and the perpetrator is a child at the school.

The parents came out of that meeting feeling this way. Almost like the school officials knew more than they were letting on, and this was perhaps the reason why they were keeping it more to themselves.

So, what do they do?

A solution came about for these parents at the meeting. It was decided that the student (their child) would turn his phone into the office in the morning, and then pick it up at the end of the school day.

At least, they would know that their child’s phone was secure during the day.

The parents seem okay with that solution.

Of course, if this is an ongoing issue, the parents may have to revisit this issue.

Hopefully not.

And, hopefully, this wasn’t a case of targeting and/or bullying. Theft, though.

Which is never a good thing.