United Airlines Pilot kicks girl with autism and her family off the flight

[SP Cook]

(Never mind that federal law requiring that places of public accommodation make provision for people of disability, nor that simple decency that dictates those with the "long straw" bend a little or a lot for those with the short.)

Umm, wrong.  First, of course, there is no such phrase as "people of disability".  Unless you are referring to somebody from some place called "Disability".  Disability, Nebraska, maybe?  Federal law only requires REASONABLE ACCOMODATION.  Since this poor child cannot be reasonably accommodated, the law does not apply.  Her behavior disability is so severe that by your own admission (and her child abusing and self centered parents admission

she PROBABLY is not going to physically attack strangers. 

PROBABLY

Your rights end when you attack people.  Or threaten to do so.

Buy a car.

[Pete from Boston]

(Never mind that federal law requiring that places of public accommodation make provision for people of disability, nor that simple decency that dictates those with the "long straw" bend a little or a lot for those with the short.)

Umm, wrong.  First, of course, there is no such phrase as "people of disability".  Unless you are referring to somebody from some place called "Disability".  Disability, Nebraska, maybe?  Federal law only requires REASONABLE ACCOMODATION.  Since this poor child cannot be reasonably accommodated, the law does not apply.  Her behavior disability is so severe that by your own admission (and her child abusing and self centered parents admission

she PROBABLY is not going to physically attack strangers. 

PROBABLY

Your rights end when you attack people.  Or threaten to do so.

Buy a car.

You skipped the part about the adult concept of "human decency," instead dwelling on the grammatical construct and reminding us that we have rights to be protected from the child growing up with the disability.  Classy.

[Billy F 1988]

Wow. I would have told you, Pete that this statement was a cheap shot, but I'm reserving judgement  We don't need "protection from the child growing up with 'the disability'", a la autism. You must have missed the part where I said

The family of the autistic girl needs to do a better job parenting her. They're letting her get her way (or not, in this case) and are not showing some form of disciplinary restraint. Now I'm not advocating slapping the girl silly to the point of bruising, oh hell no! What I am point out is show some doggone restraint on your girl! Shit! Teach her what is not acceptable and what is!

So, in short, it's better parenting, better discipline, and showing better restraint in situations like this. This family just cost the rest of the flight's passengers money, time, and resources with this behavioral spat.

Question to chew on folks: Whose at fault? The parents? The child? United Airlines? Or all the aforementioned?

I contend that the fault lies with the girl and the parents for how this was handled.

[corco]

The fault lies with everybody but the child in this case. I place the immediate blame on the family for not being proactive and for threatening a flight attendant in flight. That said, I'm still baffled as to how you can justify grounding an aircraft, force a disruptive passenger off, and then put them on another airplane if the initial grounding was actually necessary.

One other point I would add to what I said above- the girl refused to eat prior to getting on the plane. The parents were aware of this, and if they were easily able to pinpoint that the girl needed to have a "hot meal" before boarding the aircraft, they should have discussed this with the airlines in Houston before boarding. IAH to PDX is not a short flight and the mother is a doctor- they should have been able to piece that one together BEFORE getting on the plane. Just a "my daughter is autistic, we tried to feed her during the layover and she refused to eat- we're worried that she might have difficulty on a flight of this length- is there anyway you can help?" At that point, the airline could have done several things:

1) Re-book them onto a later flight after the girl decided to eat to reasonably accommodate them (I guarantee there are multiple daily flights from IAH to PDX)
2) Re-book them onto two shorter flights (IAH to DEN to PDX or something) so girl would have a chance to eat
3) Arrange for them to bring a meal that could easily be heated onto the aircraft to reasonably accommodate them
4) Arrange for the airline to provide a hot meal to reasonably accommodate them

There was plenty of opportunity to allow the airlines to provide a reasonable accommodation, had the airline been notified in advance.

To me, blaming the girl isn't fair. At some point a Mom that demeans their kid by saying "How about we wait for her to have a meltdown, she’ll be crying and trying to scratch in frustration. I don’t want her to get to that point." right in front of the daughter (who, according to the mother is high functioning/high IQ) is enabling bad behavior and teaching that outbursts are acceptable as much as they are trying to deal with a disability.

[broadhurst04]

(Never mind that federal law requiring that places of public accommodation make provision for people of disability, nor that simple decency that dictates those with the "long straw" bend a little or a lot for those with the short.)

People of disability used to be shut out of quite a lot of society because "able" people were inconvenienced by them.  "Able" people have fortunately been learning to get over their feeling of entitlement to quiet, pleasant comfort free of the sounds, the smells, and the sights of those who aren't as lucky.  Most, anyway. 

There are still plenty of people out there who would just as soon not be confronted with a person with a disability, lest they be forced to contemplate that their good health is just as much good luck as it is anything else, maybe more than anything else.

[Billy F 1988]

The fault lies with everybody but the child in this case. I place the immediate blame on the family for not being proactive and for threatening a flight attendant in flight. That said, I'm still baffled as to how you can justify grounding an aircraft, force a disruptive passenger off, and then put them on another airplane if the initial grounding was actually necessary.

One other point I would add to what I said above- the girl refused to eat prior to getting on the plane. The parents were aware of this, and if they were easily able to pinpoint that the girl needed to have a "hot meal" before boarding the aircraft, they should have discussed this with the airlines in Houston before boarding. IAH to PDX is not a short flight and the mother is a doctor- they should have been able to piece that one together BEFORE getting on the plane. Just a "my daughter is autistic, we tried to feed her during the layover and she refused to eat- we're worried that she might have difficulty on a flight of this length- is there anyway you can help?" At that point, the airline could have done several things:

1) Re-book them onto a later flight after the girl decided to eat to reasonably accommodate them (I guarantee there are multiple daily flights from IAH to PDX)
2) Re-book them onto two shorter flights (IAH to DEN to PDX or something) so girl would have a chance to eat
3) Arrange for them to bring a meal that could easily be heated onto the aircraft to reasonably accommodate them
4) Arrange for the airline to provide a hot meal to reasonably accommodate them

There was plenty of opportunity to allow the airlines to provide a reasonable accommodation, had the airline been notified in advance.

To me, blaming the girl isn't fair. At some point a Mom that demeans their kid by saying "How about we wait for her to have a meltdown, she'll be crying and trying to scratch in frustration. I don't want her to get to that point." right in front of the daughter (who, according to the mother is high functioning/high IQ) is enabling bad behavior and teaching that outbursts are acceptable as much as they are trying to deal with a disability.

Then how in the flying fumble of hell did she let this happen?! Laziness? Ignorance? If it ain't the child, if it ain't the airline, if it ain't the flight attendants, or the pilot, then it has to be the flying fumble of a mother! And they still cost a lot other passengers' time.