“Joanna's behavior started to change a few months upon starting at Doris Read elementary,” says Joanie. Her daughter, Joanna, was diagnosed with autism right before the age of 3. “She was getting upset. She was throwing tantrums about going. She started to get scared of people.”

“Michael started acting up at home, getting a little bit more violent with his little sisters,” says another mom, Jodi, about her autistic 8-year-old. “He would just walk up and hit them. He got so he didn't want to go to school.” Jodi says she noticed more emotional changes in Michael. “He would cower down and put his hands over his face. Michael would come home from school and tell me that a fellow student had been smacked with a stick or that Ms. Washington had smacked the student on the head or on the belly. We thought it was his imagination going crazy on him. Michael said that the teacher had thrown him down.”

Marshelle noticed that her son, Matthew, who is non-verbal, came home with a bruised eye. “Maybe two or three days later, Matthew came home with a chipped tooth, so I called the school,” she recounts. “I asked to speak to the teacher. She told me, 'He needs to see a psychiatrist,' and hung up in my face.” With tears streaming down her face, she says, “I was mad, because I couldn't get any answers to why my baby was coming home with these bruises.”

Bonnie’s son, Christopher, has no sign-language, writing, or any other communication skills. “Suddenly, Christopher would just start crying for no reason,” she says, “and it was almost like he was having a little mini-breakdown. What Christopher started doing is he will take your hand and hit himself in the forehead.”