Is this really where we’ve come as a society? We excuse sexual assault and make the victim feel like she should’ve accepted the assualt bc “awww, the poor baby is autistic, he doesn’t know any better🥺” are you kidding me? Are you actually f*****g with my sanity right now? No, everyone wants society to treat autistic and other disabled people as… normal people, so that’s exactly what op and fam should do. SEND HIM TO PRISON. Not some mental ward, PRISON. “Normal” people go prison. And he deserved that punch, maybe more. I’m so angry for op and I’m sick of this planet and the people that inhibit it. F**k Troy and those disgusting teachers. They should feel ashamed and disgusted with themselves for seeing sa and not doing anything about it.

Screw the autism excuse; if I found out someone like him did that to my little girl I'd break his damn neck. F**k him AND his family.

Tbh, the enablers are the most ableist in this case. Believing autistic people are to stupid to comprehend consent. That is waaaay more ableist than not wanting to be sexually assaulted.

Person with Asperger's here. This "boy" is not mentally disabled, he's a fücking ässole and if this was me, a broken nose would have been the least of his concerns if he groped me just once.

No, no, no. Autism is no f*****g excuse. This person needs to be IN JAIL, or in a mental care facility since they obviously don't know right from wrong. It is okay to be understanding of people with autism but people that cannot function in society cannot be allowed into society. . This is f*****g disgusting.

This kind of excuse to molest girls sickens me.. this poor girl had to suffer for years of abuse and apparently her parents did nothing? I would have come unhinged at anyone groping my daughter at any age no matter what mental capacity the abuser is.

this has made me so mad!!! plenty of people have autism all across the spectrum and they don't act like this! he and the people around him are using his autism as an excuse to let him get away with anything he wants. SA is not trivial. this young lady is feeling like she HAS to be nice to him, she HAS to let him do whatever he wants to her, and that is NOT RIGHT. not right at all. i'm glad her family has gotten involved and they have a plan going forward. she does not need to be around this guy ever again!

Is there a GoFundMe for legal fees? Because I feel like I'd like to give something. Start by suing the school - they said OP was the best care giver?!??!? No she's not! She's a child and a student in their charge. It's 100% the school's responsibility to hire an appropriately trained professional to be Troy's care giver. Sue the parents of Troy, for not ensuring Troy had an appropriately training professional care giver. Sue the local police for negligence in the face of physical assault causing harm. Civil suits all 'round. Criminal charges won't stick, unfortunately. But since money is what's keeping Troy out of trouble, OP should line up civil suits to get all the money she can to pay for the therapy, changing schools, and krav maga classes (for the next time someone tried to mess with her.)

He knows what he's doing. And he targets you because he has an excuse. We had a guy like that when I was young. Handicapped. But would chase all the girls an try to touch and kiss them or hug them. As girls we knew if you got cornered by him he was gonna pull something. The boys mostly laughed at him for trying and some stood up to him and got him away from us. After school years later he was at the local grocery as a bagger and still tried to hug an kiss "customers" that were females. Eventually and I don't know if it's true, he got married an maybe had a kid. Idk. But we always watched out for this guy because he KNEW that he could get away w assaulting us right in the open because of his disability. He had something wrong w his legs and wore braces. Something in his skull an had a plate. An something else I can't recall. Wasn't supposed to make it past 5 yrs old but made it almost to 50. But like I said it was grueling in a small town to deal with him.

What happened to the basic human right of being able to go to school without fear of being sexually assaulted. The school has a duty of care to her and they have failed in that. Both the schools failings and the assaults are matters for the police.

Good on her. Autistic or not he deserves to be punched. His parents should have taught him a long time ago it's not acceptable behaviour. That kid is gonna end up raping someone.

I remember in elementary school there was a kid who was autistic. Once we were partners in math class and we told me about a dream he had where he saved a girl in our class from armed gunmen and then had sex with her. He was 8. I immediately told the girl about that, and then the boy continuously kept harassing her. I did everything I could to keep him away from her and our teachers never did anything to help her, instead I got in trouble for telling the girl about what he said. When I read this that memory just sprang to mind.

How horrible. You were NOT his caretaker. And if you were, you should put up with that? No. No way. That is just wrong that people let him get away with this.

(CONTINUED>>)The parents of this young seem to have dropped the ball with regard to his education, but I think society in your town was more concerned with appeasing this well-connected family. IMHO, I think that if anyone DID have concerns, they may have been rebuffed and decided it just wasn't worth the argument so his behaviors were 'excused'. That never should have happened and I pray this family doesn't learn the hard way, what their ignorance has done. As for you my dear, please talk to someone! Your feelings of guilt and the 'bullying' you're getting is something you need to work through for your own well-being. You didn't do anything wrong! You did what was needed. Maybe now he will leave you be. If not, walk away and know that you did the right thing!! I'm proud of you! You've opened a discussion about a topic that can be quite sensitive. Because someone has a disability it does not preclude them, based upon their abilty, from acceptable behaviors.

My son is autistic and his parents should have taught him to respect other people a long time ago

1/2 This makes me sick. There's a disabled man who has been obsessed with me since I was six (yes, it all happened). I was told to forgive and forget because he didn't know what he was doing. He was much the same - I belonged to him, etc. Only difference is he's 20 years older than me. Even now, if he sees me in public he shouts my name and tries to chase me. I won't feel safe till he's dead. I am sitting here sobbing right now that someone else has had to endure this, a male demanding ownership of her and society ignoring her pain in favour of his ego. I'm physically ill that this poor child has been robbed of her identity and childhood to pacify someone else's obsession because the adults were too lazy to do the work of properly teaching the autistic man (I am autistic too, but I'd rather die than sexually harass someone or force someone to be around me who didn't want to be). The autism spectrum is broad. But NOBODY is unteachable. With work and effort, they could have taught Troy.

He’s using his autism as an excuse to be a sexual predator. Complain to the police and press charges. And switch schools.

Ok this kids Troy most likely 99.99% knew what he was doing was wrong. My sister has very severe autism, she’s slow on the uptake but she knows if somthing is wrong or right.this guy has been sexually assaulting her years and because he has autism he gets away with it, it’s as it he picked her in kindy and now she has no rights because an autistic kids ‘chose’ her. Next I have a story that is on topic. So I was in kindy and I had started taking my first karate lessons, I has playing with my friends at break one time it was a big group of boys. Than at one point one of them just leaned in to kiss me and I liked this boy he was nice but I didn’t like him like that so… I punched him. And my punched hurt like hell apparently all the female teachers got very mad at me. But the principal kinda person (male) told me that it was self defence and he had to send me home due to protocol but he’s happy I stood up for myself. I got sent home then but both my parents told me I did the right thing.

Call the cops on him, if they won't do anything then lay the boots to that rapist.

the school is at fault, they should have put the "autistic" guy on special program called aggression replacement training / social functioning training (but that would mean spending money, which for usalandian [edit: read article again, sorry - my bad, it wasnt in the usa] institutions is worse than death or the sod's parents would be angered - and nobody wants to annoy such fat cats) where he'd be taught social rules everybody else is supposed to follow in the so called life, yet they chose to use the "autism" label to avoid accepting any responsibility or doing anything for that matter

Autism is a difficulty, but not an excuse for terrible behavior. This is not the same thing that happens with typical autism. You had a bully and an abuser. And people around him were encouraging this? Lawsuit against the school district and town, would not be out of place. They are basically saying that abuse is OK as long as the abuser has a health issue. NOT! And to say that you should put up with it because you were his caretaker? You're not related to him, you didn't like him, and even if you were his caretaker this is beyond what is allowable. Glad you are getting some help. So sorry that's terrible thing happened to you. I am very liberal about caring for everyone, but that includes the abused. And the abused must be protected. No excuses.

Autistic human, here. I would also like to weigh in that no, his Autism is no excuse to sexually assault you or anyone else. The problem here is not only the dumbass "boys will be boys" c**p, but the fact that his behavior has been purposefully enabled for years. I agree with course of action taken; lawsuit, restraining order, and therapy, although his parents should be paying for it, not your amazing aunt. I am so sorry that this has not only happened, but perpetuated for so long against you. I hope you will be able to get past this and have a fantastic life.

Autistic person here. This woman had every right to defend herself. At the end of the day the groping kid probably learned a valuable lesson.

this just makes me really angry. f*****g dipshit... i dont how other people see this and dont react.. they talk about equality, but are afraid of telling this piece of s**t off because they could come off as ableist... dumb a*s herd mentality