Miriam Itzkowitz – Year 10

Last Tuesday, 5 June, I held an autism awareness day at school, fundraising for Autism Spectrum Australia (Aspect). The aim of this fundraiser was to raise compassion and empathy for autistic children, in hopes that it will alleviate their stress and dread of going to school, through various activities throughout the day. I presented a speech about my brother’s experience with autism in front of Assembly the week before the fundraiser. The reaction was remarkable and there were noticeable differences in people’s behaviour. Some students came up to me, disclosing the fact that they themselves are on the Spectrum, while others told me that they had realised that they hadn’t been the nicest and wanted to start changing their attitudes and be more tolerant of difference. Some even reached out directly to my brother. Many people told me I was brave, and while flattered, I disagree, because I believe it was something that needed to be said as we live in a society where being different is not OK, despite what people say. That needs to change. I find the fact that I even needed to make a speech challenging because I think it’s something that should come naturally. However, I am extremely pleased that now, after doing so, people are starting to put in more of an effort, for which I am so proud.

The day was a blue plain-clothes day, as blue is the representative colour of autism. At Assembly we had a speaker from Aspect, who explained what the organisation does. At recess we had a bake sale, selling blue cupcakes and raffle tickets, with the prizes correlating to some aspect of autism. For example, we had video games to portray the interest in technology and electronics, or thematic books for love of reading, topics like acceptance (“Love Simon”) or my brother’s personal favourite, a book on outer space. We also had a couple of people delivering jokes in Hebrew. I did this because I’ve found that people on the Spectrum seem to almost be speaking another language, in the sense that they can understand what you’re saying, but they take it literally which is what you have to do when you start speaking another language. It’s almost as though English sarcasm is a 2^nd language, and literal English is their 1^st. I thought the best way to portray this would be through Hebrew jokes. At lunch we had a sensory disco, portraying the overwhelming stress of everyday life, and the restrictiveness in which people on the Spectrum move to reflect their discomfort in coming into contact with anything that can disrupt their order. Throughout the day we had activities like Pictionary, Taboo and Charades, showing the frustration in communicating, as well as videos and recordings. This provided further insight and understanding into what autism really is.

I had the idea for this fundraiser towards the end of last year, as I witnessed how badly my brother and other students on the Spectrum were being bullied for the way they acted, as a result of their autism. People didn’t necessarily know that they have it, but it was evident that they were being treated badly because of their peculiar mannerisms. My brother was often manipulated, excluded and teased, and while these actions aren’t necessarily kind, they are not harmless to many people on the Spectrum. A common trait of autism involves taking things literally and not being able to differentiate between sarcasm and reality.

Another issue I found was the use of derogatory words throughout the playground to describe my brother, or the use of the word, “autism” inappropriately. People often scream to each other, “You’re autistic!” or when they’re annoyed say: “This is autism!”. It is often portrayed so negatively – which it isn’t. People also seem to think autistic people are extremely unintelligent and “spastic”. I’ve even had people come up to me and tell me that my brother is “retarded”! As cheesy as this sounds, I knew something needed to be done about this, as this behaviour is wrong and the information is false. This originates out of pure ignorance, and the way to cure ignorance is through education – and what better place to do that than at school?

I first found out that my brother was on the Spectrum when I was 9 years old and my brother was 6. I was told by my parents that I would need to expect less attention and that they didn’t love me any less, but my brother just required a little bit more work. A year later, my brother found out that he had autism and has since become quite vocal and open about it. Having been confronted with this condition at such a young age, I was aware of what it was before most of my peers. Around the beginning of High School, I heard people starting to use ‘autism’ incorrectly, which bothered me. I’d often correct them, and explained that it was offensive to me, to which they’d often reply with something about my brother being ‘retarded’ (which I also take offence to, as I have a cousin with Down Syndrome) and how I’m too sensitive and that it’s “just a word”.