Autistic Daughter And Her Family Kicked Off United Airlines
(IN PHOTO)Autistic child Cody Martinez, with the help of his mother Gayle, enters an American Airlines plane for the first time during the "Flight Experience Program" event launched by Los Angeles World Airports for families with autism and hosted by American Airlines at Los Angeles International Airport in Los Angeles, California April 18, 2015. The program offers practice airport experience from check-in to boarding for families with autism to help them prepare for future flights and help reduce anxieties and fears associated with flying. REUTERS

An Oregon woman files complaint against United Airlines after her family was kicked off a Portland-bound flight because it said her 15-year-old daughter, who has autism, had become "disruptive." Just before she turned three, Juliette Beegle, 15, was diagnosed with autism.

While her IQ is high, she has a hard time communicating. The mother, Dr. Donna Beegle of Tigard, Oregon, is a prominent advocate for anti-poverty programmes who frequently consults with state and federal government agencies.

She, along with her husband Juliette and Juliette's brother, boarded a layover flight in Houston on their way home to Portland from a trip to Walt Disney World. According to Beegle, as told to NBC station KGW of Portland, Oregon, her daughter Juliette became agitated because she was hungry during a layover in Houston.

She persuaded a flight attendant to give her daughter some hot food. Later, Juliette had calmed down and was quietly watching a movie when “the next thing we hear is we're doing an emergency landing in Salt Lake City. We have a passenger on board with a behavior issue,” says Beegle. She adds, “As a mom it ripped my heart out. I was shaking."

Autism spectrum disorder, or ASD, is a range of complex neurodevelopment disorders that are characterised by social impairments, communication difficulties, and restricted, repetitive and stereotyped patterns of behavior. Children with ASD face difficulty interpreting what others are thinking or feeling because they can’t understand social cues, such as tone of voice or facial expressions. They also fail to respond to their names and often avoid eye contact with other people, along with lack of empathy. There is a lot of stigma associated with such disorders whose blame might be put on lack of awareness among the general public.

The video that covered the incident is posted to YouTube where a passenger can be heard remarking, "its ridiculous." While another says, "That's going to be a lawsuit."

The family feels that this incident is a case of ignorance, prejudice and mistreatment towards people with special need. It also reflects the lack of training that the airline staff is supposed to be receiving.

A statement released by the United Airlines in their defense say that the crew made the best decision for the safety and comfort of all of their customers and elected to divert to Salt Lake City after the situation became disruptive.

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