A STORY in Life two weeks ago about the treatment of an autistic child has prompted another mother to speak about the ignorance surrounding the condition.

Jenny Fookes, who lives in Redhill with her 19-year-old son Christopher, has watched strangers throw dog biscuits at him and film him on their mobile phones.

She said the stares and comments about him being contagious or on drugs had got worse as her 6ft son grew into an adult and became more visible.

She said: "He doesn't speak and makes funny noises which can be quite loud and he makes big, animated movements which people stare at. Christopher loves to stand in The Belfry shopping centre watching people's feet walk by and he is so happy doing this, minding his own business.

"While he gets absorbed in the feet he rocks and jumps up and down. He is stared at and verbally abused and the latest thing is people filming him on their phones, which I find quite a violation.

"It has happened several times and these are people Christopher's own age which is even more surprising, groups of them very blatantly coming up to him and filming him in his face."

Christopher, who is on the severe end of the autistic spectrum, communicates through head banging and attends a specialist boarding school in Swanage in Dorset.

Ms Fookes hopes a shift towards including less severe autistic children in mainstream schools will improve attitudes towards autism.

She said education was the only way of changing people's attitudes and added: "I can't change Christopher but I wish I could change everybody else."

Ms Fookes wrote this rap song which she believes would be Christopher's words if he could speak.

Society dehumanises me. Despises me. Criticises me.

They are fossilised. I do not apologise.

I am ridiculed, violated, bullied. Ignored.

I am stared at, laughed at, spat at.

I am holistic, simplistic, certainly not materialistic.

My disability is your prejudice, systemic injustice.

Your presumptions and assumptions.

Intolerance of my difference.

Your misperception, I take objection.

I'm not a label or a vegetable or a crystal angel.

I'm not a lost soul or out of control.

I'm not from outer space or a charity case.

I am suppressed not possessed.

Institution is not a solution.

I'm not a zoo exhibition or a freak show, I'm a feeling human from head to toe.

I can get lost in the world's beauty So don't make me fit in your reality.

Why should I conform To what you think is the norm.

I create employment and opportunity, I educate the world in diversity.

You can't bleed the devil out of me, People like me have influenced history.

You need me.

I'm not ill, I don't want your pills Or your out-of-date textbook skills.

So don't cure me. Don't pity me, just let me be.

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