Ria Lina on sticking up for her neurodivergent children

And one of the things that as an autistic mother, I wanted to make sure didn't happen to my kids because it happened to me, was that they were never punished or disciplined for being neurodiverse.

And every school that we've been with has been great about feedback and the rest of it, but there have been a lot of emails of me going, hi, I saw that you disciplined my kid for standing.

Once it was, he stood up and the teacher found him standing between the blind and the window.

And he said, yeah, I had to discipline your child because when I turned around from the board, he was standing.

He'd pulled the blind down.

He was between the blind and the window.

He couldn't see the board.

And I said, yes, but wasn't the rule that he was allowed to stand up sometimes from his chair as long as he was behind his desk? And the teacher said, yes.

And I said, and was he behind his desk? And the teacher said, well, technically, yeah, the window's behind his desk.

I said, well, then I'm afraid you can't punish him for it because you weren't clear enough.

You didn't say you must stand behind your desk, but in front of the blind.

You just said you may stand up from your desk.

And so he chose to stand up from his desk, but he chose to stand behind the blind.

We can be more clear.

And the clarity was you need to be able to see the board because he was indeed behind the blind, but still facing the board.

So even then, my kid was like, but I was facing the board.

So you may stand behind your desk as long as you can see the board.

And one of the things that as an autistic mother, I wanted to make sure didn't happen to my kids because it happened to me, was that they were never punished or disciplined for being neurodiverse.

And every school that we've been with has been great about feedback and the rest of it, but there have been a lot of emails of me going, hi, I saw that you disciplined my kid for standing.

Once it was, he stood up and the teacher found him standing between the blind and the window.

And he said, yeah, I had to discipline your child because when I turned around from the board, he was standing.

He'd pulled the blind down.

He was between the blind and the window.

He couldn't see the board.

And I said, yes, but wasn't the rule that he was allowed to stand up sometimes from his chair as long as he was behind his desk? And the teacher said, yes.

And I said, and was he behind his desk? And the teacher said, well, technically, yeah, the window's behind his desk.

I said, well, then I'm afraid you can't punish him for it because you weren't clear enough.

You didn't say you must stand behind your desk, but in front of the blind.

You just said you may stand up from your desk.

And so he chose to stand up from his desk, but he chose to stand behind the blind.

We can be more clear.

And the clarity was you need to be able to see the board because he was indeed behind the blind, but still facing the board.

So even then, my kid was like, but I was facing the board.

So you may stand behind your desk as long as you can see the board.