NEWS: Autistic Boy Attacked By Teens At Idlewild

[jedimaster1227]

http://www.thepittsburghchannel.com/westmoreland/23748015/detail.html

 

Police in Westmoreland County are investigating after a 10-year-old boy who has autism was attacked at a local amusement park.

 

Debbie Zomisky said her son, Kolton, was kicked, punched and choked while waiting in line at a ride at Idlewild and that other adults in the area turned a blind eye to the beating.

 

"Kolton got off the ride and said that some teenagers had hit him and choked him," Zomisky said.

 

But police in Ligonier Township police told Channel 4 Action News' Jennifer Miele that they can do little to catch the teens without witnesses coming forward.

 

Zomisky said her son lives with Asperger Syndrome, a type of autism. She said he sometimes has a difficult time in social situations, although he's very intelligent.

 

She told Miele that Kolton was waiting in line by himself for a water slide at Idlewild Park's Soak Zone on Friday, when some teen boys started teasing him. When the teasing turned to punching, Zomisky said nearby adults did nothing to help.

 

"They started choking me and horsing me, and kicking me, and punching me," Kolton Zomisky said.

 

Debbie Zomisky said she told a park employee, but decided to leave a few a minutes later.

 

When bruises started to show on Kolton's skin, Debbie Zomisky said she decided to go to police the next day.

 

Investigators are now looking for three teenagers and for a woman who was standing in front of Kolton during the scuffle.

 

"I would really appreciate this woman coming forward so she can give a better description. Maybe she knew them," Debbie Zomisky said.

 

An Idlewild officials told Channel 4 Action News that, "Upon receiving the report, the Idlewild Department of Public Safety reached out to the family, immediately contacted the Ligonier Township Police Department and we are cooperating fully with their investigation."

 

If you have any information that could help police with their investigation, call 724-238-5105.

[thrillrider]

Sad.....Just sad.

[cal1br3tto]

There is really nothing to say other than "What the [f-word]?!?"

This is beyond ridiculous. Completely inappropriate in every way.

[eddie200330]

I would like to have been in that line right behind them. There would've been 3 teens taught a pretty good life lesson. It amazes me that for such a family friendly place, no one else around really did anything to help the little boy!

 

On a side note I hope to be getting the kiidies up there this coming Sunday with a wonderful internet "coopun" they sent me via the Kennywood newsletter I subscribe to!! SWEET

[SharkTums]

Yes this is terrible, but why was a 10 year old boy with special needs alone in a line at a water park.

 

Supervision people!!!!

[jazzimm]

I have a cousin with asperger's syndrome and to me, this is absolutely heartbreaking. I don't care how old you are, aren't we at a place yet where we can have some respect for people with disabilities? I only wish I was standing in line behind them when this happened so that somebody could put them in their place. People who do things like this to people - disabled or otherwise - need to learn some serious lessons.

 

And while I do agree that "where was the supervision?" is a major question here, I can also understand why that might not have been on the mother's mind. If most people were to meet my cousin, you probably wouldn't think he's autistic or disabled at all. He can be a little awkward in conversations sometimes and he's quite timid, but other than that he's just a normal kid, and very very smart. So I wouldn't think anything of my 13-year-old cousin doing his own thing at a theme park. But now that I think about it, if somebody tried to pick a fight with him like that, he probably wouldn't do anything, either, as in this situation.

 

It's truly sad when we think that an autistic child has finally made enough progress and is old enough to go off and do his/her own thing, and then it turns out that they can't even have that freedom yet, not because they haven't worked for it, but because we can't trust other people.

 

The number of witnesses there must have been! It's upsetting.

[SharkTums]

^I agree, but 13 is also a lot different than 10 years old.

[moinab]

Yes this is terrible, but why was a 10 year old boy with special needs alone in a line at a water park.

 

Supervision people!!!!

 

I'm struggling with this. Christian will be 10 in August. We are starting to give him more responsibility, allowing him to go check the mail (2 blocks away,) by himself, etc. Depending on the situation, it's possible that we would consider allowing him to wait in line by himself. Hard to say, though, without actually being there.

 

Worrying about exactly this kind of situation keeps us both up, at night. Bullying is a really big issue for Asperger/high functioning autism kids. That's why Todd is so active in the school, and why we're going to be going back to homeschooling, before he hits middle school.

[SharkTums]

^See, my point is 'special' or not, I don't believe 10 year olds should be unsupervised at a WATER PARK!!!

 

I know it wasn't until 8th grade that we were even allowed to go on Field Trips to the Beach or Water Parks and it was a really big deal. Sure we had done other trips before with school, and my parents would let me bike around our neighborhood a 'bit'. But a water park really ups the odds of something bad happening.

[Emiroo]

Wish I had been there because if so this one would have had a happier ending.

 

Disability or no disability, I can't believe nobody stopped it. That just ticks me off. I was physically bullied though middle and high school and have a low tolerance for it. Now that I'm no longer a scrawny student, I've even stopped to break-up what turned out to be friendly front (back) yard wrestling matches. (Everyone had a good laugh and I told the guys they were definitely making it look good.)

 

I'm sure one day it will get me stabbed, but until then I'm usually the a-hole who spoils the fight for the crowd.

[moinab]

I totally missed the fact that it was a water park. (Guess I need more sleep!) This is such a hot button topic, for me, that I think my mind takes off before I get all the details.

 

I see your point, now, and totally agree with you about supervision at water parks (and beaches.)

[Sir Clinksalot]

I agree with Elissa on this one. My kids are now 13 (almost 14) and 12 and it's just been in the last year or so that we've started letting them go off on their own for A ride or 2 at Disneyland or SFMM. And these are parks they have been to at least 50-100 times in their lifetimes.

 

Still, there is NO excuse for this kind of behavior and I find it appalling that nobody else around did anything to stop it. I'm not sure how bad it was if the kid still went on the ride as well.

[moinab]

Considering that all we have to go off of is what the boy told his mom, and some bruises that appeared later, who knows what really happened. It would be nice if someone who was there would come forward, but then they would be subjected to questioning as to why they didn't intervene.

 

We may never know the full story on this one. I will say that it can be very difficult to get a autistic child, even a high-functioning one, to give you accurate details of an event. Christian tends to under-report things, rather than exaggerating. And he probably would still go on the ride, even after being harassed.

[jamesdillaman]

Consider this: would it be any better if it said: "10-year-old was attacked by teens at waterpark" I don't think the fact the child has special needs should be an issue. If he truly was assaulted in the manner described, it is sad nobody intervened. If he described events that didn't occur that way, however, the situation is changed.

[Chris Benvenuto]

Depending on the disability's strength and level, I'd worry about the level of responsibility. I mean, sure, we're talking about Autism and something I've lived with since I was about 4 years old. My parents began to trust me on my own when I was about 12, and slowly gave me more as I grew older but that's a different story altogether and not the focus of the topic.

 

 

What happened was inexcusable and thoughtless, both on the teenagers and the parent's behalf. Mom or Dad should've been outside of the line, waiting as their kid rode to see if anything went askew. But, due to the nature of some waterslide lines, they might've been impossible to do. I know some lines at Soak Zone have trees and building's in between them, and sometimes I do admit it's hard to visually watch someone line up for a slide there.

 

I do have to say, this was a slip-up on the mom's behalf. She should've been in line with him, regardless if she was afraid of the slide or not. Just to keep her kid safe. But, this is me thinking out loud, to be honest.

 

Also, when any kid beats on or picks on someone who can't control themselves due to a disability that's beyond their control is just, plain, wrong. Therefore, it's utterly disappointing and inexcusable for something like that to be ignored and not acted upon by other patrons in the general area.

 

my two cents, my two cents.

[Angry_Gumball]

This is plain messed up. I see things 2 ways with this situation. First off, teens shouldn't be beating up a 10-year-old...that's just plain chicken sh**. They immediately know that a 10-year-old kid is probably not going to handle the situation and unfortunately that was probably taken advantage of.

 

The flipside of this is that a 10-year-old shouldn't be unsupervised. I was probably 12 when I did my 6th grade trip to CGA. We got to go with our friends and at one point, I had gotten separated when attempting to ride the Demon. I had a few other instances when my cousin and I (Cousin was a probably in her early 20s) got to wander off at Santa Cruz. However, I wasn't alone. Someone was there with me that would do all the same rides I would do. This should have been done with the 10-year-old...maybe bring someone a little older along that would do the same rides as the kid for backup, and to simply keep him company. But in today's world, it's normal to see even 8-year-olds running solo at my home park, though I did see one kid on a leash.

[Capitalize]

I don't really read anything the mom did as being that bad, certainly not bad enough to lay blame at her feet. Its not like the article says she was out in the parking lot chain smoking and told the kid she'd pick him up out front. It sounds like her son wanted to go on the water slide and she simply waited at the bottom for him. I've never seen a water slide that allowed people to wait in line with people and come back down without going down the slide, at least not easily (with out walking back down the crowded stairway up). Even if she did go up the stairs with him to the slide, she would then have to walk back down and who is to say something bad doesn't happen when he's left down on ground level where there's even more people bustling around while he's waiting for his mom? Personally me and my sister were allowed to roam around the local water park when we were just as young with limited supervision.

 

One of my cousins is autistic, like others said its not particularly obvious there's anything wrong with him except in some of his mannerisms in social situations. If I had to make a guess/assumption the mother felt such situations give her son some room for freedom so he can be "mainstreamed" as much as possible and live a more independent life as time goes on. I know for my aunt and uncle they have always done all they possibly could to help my cousin enroll in "normal" schools and take as many "normal" classes as possible. They even signed him up for boxing classes so he would be fit and could defend himself from bullies if it came down to it.

 

I find it hard to place blame on the victims in this situation (the child and parent) when it seems the culprits were so horribly in the wrong.

[Goliath513]

^See, my point is 'special' or not, I don't believe 10 year olds should be unsupervised at a WATER PARK!!!

 

I know it wasn't until 8th grade that we were even allowed to go on Field Trips to the Beach or Water Parks and it was a really big deal. Sure we had done other trips before with school, and my parents would let me bike around our neighborhood a 'bit'. But a water park really ups the odds of something bad happening.

When I was in 6th grade, our school and many more around the area would all gather at the Windsor Waterworks in Northern California. It was a popular destination for elementary and school groups around that time of the year. I remember the park being so packed with kids that one could barely move and the lines for the slides were more like small mosh pits. The pool was a death trap for anyone who couldn't swim since it was pretty deep and they could easily go unnoticed by the lifeguards with that many people. And it eventually proved to be when a 12 year old boy drowned in that pool because his parents had trusted the school to supervise him since he didn't know how to swim. As far as I know, schools at least in the district where I used to live no longer do massive combined pool parties anymore, but that be due to the fact that the waterpark closed down for good at the end of the year for several reasons relating back to that drowning. Not that all their parents should be there to supervise their kids at school parties, but with that many people and as little supervision as that park had, it was only a matter of time. Not really sure what schools do now since I was in 8th grade when it happened and high school after that never did any trips, but the parties of this time of year are probably much smaller and in safer environments for relatively unsupervised kids that age. Side tracked a bit, but just an example to show that unsupervised kids even a few years older than 10 is a bad idea at a waterpark. In addition, there were always fights and injuries from falling on the wet concrete.

[Ledgy]

Considering that all we have to go off of is what the boy told his mom, and some bruises that appeared later, who knows what really happened. It would be nice if someone who was there would come forward, but then they would be subjected to questioning as to why they didn't intervene.

 

We may never know the full story on this one. I will say that it can be very difficult to get a autistic child, even a high-functioning one, to give you accurate details of an event. Christian tends to under-report things, rather than exaggerating. And he probably would still go on the ride, even after being harassed.

 

I agree in that. I don´t want to understand, why people so often ignore such a behavior and don´t treat right, but I know it could happen. Often you need only one person who reacts and others will follow them, cause the most of them know that there is going something wrong, but they don´t have the courage to intervene. In this case I can´t really understand why this didn´t happen, cause there won´t be nothing to fear, I guess.

 

But if someone didn´t have the courage in the right time, he/she should have the minimum of courage to tell what he/she has seen to help find the offenders. It´s no blame to finally show the correct behavior.

[lil jimmy norton]

Considering that all we have to go off of is what the boy told his mom, and some bruises that appeared later, who knows what really happened. It would be nice if someone who was there would come forward, but then they would be subjected to questioning as to why they didn't intervene.

 

We may never know the full story on this one. I will say that it can be very difficult to get a autistic child, even a high-functioning one, to give you accurate details of an event. Christian tends to under-report things, rather than exaggerating. And he probably would still go on the ride, even after being harassed.

 

I agree in that. I don´t want to understand, why people so often ignore such a behavior and don´t treat right, but I know it could happen. Often you need only one person who reacts and others will follow them, cause the most of them know that there is going something wrong, but they don´t have the courage to intervene. In this case I can´t really understand why this didn´t happen, cause there won´t be nothing to fear, I guess.

 

But if someone didn´t have the courage in the right time, he/she should have the minimum of courage to tell what he/she has seen to help find the offenders. It´s no blame to finally show the correct behavior.

 

People in group situations tend to not react as quickly, or not react at all, when things like this happen. As it turns out, the more people present during a crisis type situation, the less likely it is that one of them will react to it. I could be wrong, but I think the theory is that people feel that the more people around them, that someone is bound to help. Or, in some cases, they don't even feel obligated to help. By the time they realize no one has helped, the situation is over. I'm not justifying standing by and letting a little child get hurt, I thought I would just throw what little knowledge I had into this thread.

[deguy123]

Yes this is terrible, but why was a 10 year old boy with special needs alone in a line at a water park.

 

Supervision people!!!!

 

Completely agree.....It's sad this happened but like you said, you need to watch your children in crowded places like this even without a child with special needs.

[DerekRx]

Yeah, why a 10 year old is unsupervised at a waterpark is beyond me.

 

Not to play Devil's Advocate here, but this whole article is only 1 side of the story...from a 10 year old's perspective. I'm not defending random teenagers who "beat up" a kid, but were they even beating him up, or could he have been trying to fit in with them in some random game of "punch me as hard as you can" as dumb boys like to do. Since no one stepped it while in this waterslide line, I would assume it had to be done while on stairs...not the best place for a beat down to occur. Another possibility is that the attackee instigated the attack, maybe spitting or something that hit the teens, or since he was Autistic perhaps his social awkwardness somehow offended the other boys who may have been trying to strike up a conversation with him and he either said something they didn't like or ignored them completely.

 

As for why this woman in front of him in line didn't do anything, maybe she thought they were all together and he was like their younger brother who always gets beaten on, or maybe she was too busy watching her own kids in front of her in line.

 

In any case, I hardly doubt there are roving bands of teenagers going around amusement parks looking for unsupervised Autistic kids to beat up, and if there are the easiest thing to do is WATCH YOUR KIDS!

[deguy123]

^ I agree completely, noone really knows what happened.

 

My cousin's daughter has the same form of autistism that this boy suffers from. She has a problem around all the kids in the family but the kids know that its something that she can't control cause we explained it to them.

[Ledgy]

People in group situations tend to not react as quickly, or not react at all, when things like this happen. As it turns out, the more people present during a crisis type situation, the less likely it is that one of them will react to it. I could be wrong, but I think the theory is that people feel that the more people around them, that someone is bound to help. Or, in some cases, they don't even feel obligated to help. By the time they realize no one has helped, the situation is over. I'm not justifying standing by and letting a little child get hurt, I thought I would just throw what little knowledge I had into this thread.

 

You´re right with your theory. That´s the problem to it, but it´s possible - while knowing that - to break through this situation. The most people feel that there might be something wrong in those situations, but don´t feel bound to help because of no reaction in the group and hide behind the group. If someone does react and will directly adress some more people to help, some of them will come with you or follow this person and the aggressors don´t get the feeling of anonymous and indirect confirmation on it´s behavior. It´s important to know that, but the most don´t think about that in those situations. That was what I wanted to tell. I don´t want to award the women or someone who didn´t react.

 

I also fit in this group pattern, but try to get more sensitive in those situations, to react more like I described.

 

I want to encourage to try in the next situation and to appeal, if someone didn´t react, not to be ashamed but to tell what he/she has seen. That´s also help.

 

Uh, hope I expressed right, that´s a little bit difficult for me in a other language.

[testtrack321]

Something doesn't add up here. 10 year old autistic boy allowed to ride a water slide alone, gets beaten up, nobody "acts" upon it or "saw". Only one sided story. I don't know, just seems weird. It could be me just wanting to hope this was made up and that people aren't this bad, but I really don't know. I'll be paying more attention to this story as it develops.