Professor loved son charged in beating

http://www.comcast.net/articles/news-national/20090210/Professor.Killed/

Professor Steuernagel of Kent Ohio taught at the Kent State University where she taught political theory and women’s studies. Steuernagel was devoted to her eighteen year old son who is autistic. Professor Steuernagel was a single mother who was devoted to raising her son. Steuernagel died after being in the hospital for a week from being extremely beaten by her son. They have not yet determined what exactly she had died from but she had a significant amount of bruising around her head.
Her son who was diagnosed with autism at the age of three, was held in jail on a two million dollar bond with the charged of attempted murder. Steuernagel wrote op-ed articles for the Kent State University’s campus newspaper about how she faced daily battles and challengers raising an autistic son. In one of her articles she said “I had no patience with good and decent colleagues who told me how busy they were” “Busy? Try spending an evening sitting in a closet with your back to the door trying to hold it shut while your child kicks it in”
I personally can’t even picture this, for one treating one of my parents this way. Also being in the position of the parent knowing your child in a sense can’t help this. I wouldn’t know what to do, if I should let authorities know? Then I would be scared of what would happen to my child. I think I would be bitter too if I was a single parent and didn’t have that other parent there going through that kind of situation with me to help out. This story is just sad!

I know that they want to charge the autistic son but he didn’t really know any better. I’m sure he understood to a point but he doesn’t know how to control his anger. I’m not saying that they should let him off the hook but they shouldn’t treat him horribly. I’m sure he is terrified about everything and is having a hard time understanding what is going on. Steuernagel must have understood this otherwise she wouldn’t have dealt with the kicking in of doors all the time. She would have asked for help from people or had someone stay with her. I wouldn’t be able to handle things the way she did. I get so frustrated when I see people acting like they are five years old kicking and screaming. It would be too hard. I don’t know how she could handle that all the time. But like I said, she probably understood and maybe she thought that he really didn’t mean anything he was saying or doing.

It is terrible to see a tragedy like this happen. This woman loved her son so much and he allegedly beat her to death. What I think about when something like this happens is how people ignore the warning signs. She described to co-workers that she would often hide in the closet while he would try and kick the door in. She should have had him committed, but she loved him so much she would rather take the risk of being hurt than to see him in a place like that. Now they are both worse off than if she would have, because she is dead and he will most likely be locked up in prison or some type of mental hospital.

The severity of autism varies from case to case. Obviously this child had a very severe symptomatology. It is horribly sad that the person who loved him most in the world may have been the subject of his uncontrollable anger. I think this is an example of when a mother's or parent's love is an obsticle to the treatment of a child with a severe disorder. It seems to me that he would have been better off, as would she, in an institution that would have created a safe environment for everyone. Unfortunately, I doubt the the jail he is being held in has any capacity for understanding his disorder either.