I shouldn't post when things are great.....

So.... My last post was over month ago.  I posted about Mark's great performance at his dance class and how much he had improved to be there.  I even posted that I never knew when something might  happen to ruin it all.  But I really didn't expect it to happen, especially so soon. 

The kids had no dance class for a week because of Christmas.  The holidays really uprooted our lives for that week, along with an abnormal work schedule for me.  When it was time to return to dance class Mark would not walk through the door to class.  He said it was too loud, the music was giving him a headache.  His teacher convinced him to enter the room and to sit and watch.  Mark eventually joined the class in dancing after the tap portion was done. 

The next week was the same.  He wouldn't enter the room.  He said it was too loud, especially the tapping and that he would get a headache.  At this point I think that I should have taken him and left.  But since the teacher did get him dancing the previous week, we tried the same thing.  Mark was sitting on the side watching everyone.  And I was in a chair in the waiting room watching through the window.  Part way through the class the teacher motioned for me to come in.  She said that she had asked him to join and he spoke very rudely to her.  I do not know exactly what he said, but I do know that the F word was part of it.  So I took Mark out and he sat in the waiting room for the rest of class. 

Before I tell the rest... I will say that Mark is the master of escape behaviors.  When he was young he would just run away.  Right out the door and leave.  As he got older he would yell, hit, cry, scream, etc.  Knowing that those behaviors would get him removed from the place that he didn't want to be.  He's been told 100 times to "use your words."  Well, during his old Mario obsession, he learned the F word.  And how powerful it can be.  Now when he wants to leave a public place, he doesn't hit, yell, scream, cry, run away, throw stuff, or any of those things.  Now he just yells "F"  Nothing is faster or easier.  And it gets him removed from whichever location he wants to leave.  Library...  Waiting Room.... Dance....  After all, there are other kids around. 

So... After the dance class I was thinking about withdrawing him from the class.  The other option was to come up with a plan to get him back into the class that he used to love, pre-teach, and take it step by step.  Mark said that he still wanted to take the class, that he just had a headache.

Well, I got a call from the secretary for the dance school.  She said that Mark was not welcome back in their dance classes.  That other parents complained and will pull their children from the class if Mark comes back.  So that's the end.  4 months of perfect behavior, never an issue from him in class, in the end means nothing because of his powerful word "F."  One bad week.  I can't blame the other parents for not wanting their children exposed to such a word.  The dance school told me that Kaiya is welcome to take dance with them....  To which I was thinking, "Why wouldn't she be? Just because she has a brother with autism who has no self-control and will do whatever it takes to escape somewhere he doesn't want to be at that moment?"  (because it can happen anywhere, even places he normally likes)

I did write to the owner that made the decision to follow up and apologize for the disruption that Mark caused to the class.  She never returned my e-mail.  It does make me think that they would be happier if the entire family left the dance school.  But Kaiya has her costume and is excited all about the show, she loves her class and her teacher... so she stays. 

As for Mark, he's afraid to even walk into the dance school waiting room now.  I went in last week to get Kaiya and he hid his face in my shirt and clung to my back.  This week he wouldn't go in at all.  I had to let Kaiya go in alone and have Kaiya walk out alone.  I'd like to think that Mark has learned something from this.  But he just doesn't get it.