Reply to man who knocked boy with autism goes viral
Belleville mom posted riposte to Facebook
A Belleville mom who posted to Facebook her riposte to a man who badmouthed her son with severe autism at the Riverview Park and Zoo on Sunday has seen her post go viral.
Ashley Wright was at the zoo on Sunday with her son Logan, 13, who has severe autism and global developmental delay, and her daughter Brinlee, 11.
Wright, 34, is a single mother who works at A&W restaurant in Belleville.
She said the trip to the zoo was a special privilege Logan had earned for good behaviour.
He loves car rides and he loves the zoo, Wright said.
“If he had a choice he’d go to Peterborough all the time,” she said.
Wright said she and the children were heading to the washroom. Logan – who is 6’1” - was agitated (his mother said it was likely because he had an urgent need to use the facilities.)
He was pinching himself and making a loud “growly” noise, she said.
That’s when she said a man accosted them and yelled, “Why do people bring kids like this out in public? They ruin society!”
On the spot, Wright said, she did her best to ignore the comment and focus on getting her son to the washroom in a hurry.
But Logan heard the man, and so did Brinlee, who later told her mother she was upset.
Yet Wright hadn’t responded to the man: she was too shocked, and she also knew that any show of anger from her would upset her kids.
They used the facilities and
then carried on to the camel exhibit (Logan’s favourite zoo animal.)
Later at home, Wright confided in a friend about the encounter and realized there was so much she would have liked to have said.
So she wrote her post; it takes the form of a letter stating exactly what she might’ve wanted to tell the man but didn’t.
In her post, Wright describes the entire situation and what the man said. She also writes that she knows her son was being loud and likely distracting others.
“What you don’t realize is that Logan deserves to be out in public,” she wrote. “He doesn’t ruin society. He didn’t hurt anyone… All I can hope is that in the future, you don’t make another family feel the way you made ours feel today.”
She writes that she knows the man will never read the letter – and if he did, wouldn’t likely care. But she wrote it anyway, she said, and posted it only to her followers, just to “vent”.
Then one friend asked if they could share the post. Wright said yes, and then later decided it would be OK to make the post public.
By late Wednesday afternoon, it had been shared 5,000 times and she’d received more than 300 messages – some from people she knows, and some from parents of children with autism in far-flung locations such as England and the U.S.
“I was very overwhelmed, this morning,” Wright said late on Wednesday. “I was not expecting this at all… I’m like, ‘This is insane! In a good way!’”
Wright says it doesn’t happen often that people speak down to her son in public. Occasionally, strangers have gone out of their way to be nice, she said, offering help when Logan has been upset.
She politely declines help, she said, but appreciates the kindness.
Her advice to those who see a parent in public with an upset child with autism in simple: offer help if you like, or carry on.
“Just don’t be rude.”