The Sad Flower Drawing

Posted: 5/23/2011

I have a 14 yr old son that was recently in a Psychiatric Hospital for 10 days --ultimately due to rejection by his peers at school. It's a long and involved story.  He drew a picture that I think the picture is worth sharing.  He's PDD-NOS, Aspergers, ODD features....a rainbow of Autism.  Not an easy kid, but he did not deserve the treatment he got from the school or the students.

This is my message:

Good Morning Everyone,

I've been wanting to share a piece of art work that my son created on his second day of a recent hospital stay.  Please see the attached drawing that he did--on the back he named his creation "the sad flower."  On my second day of visiting him, he had this taped to the door of his room so that you could not miss it as you entered his room.  He left this picture up on his door the entire time he was in the hospital.

I am sharing this with you to show you what an impact bullying can have on kids.  Especially kids that lack social skills. Some of the bullying that my son was subjected to was very subtle, other times it was very obvious.  He was also someone who did bullying.  There are all kinds of bullying.  The worst kind that drove him to his crisis was the REJECTION that he experienced on the Playground and the Exclusion he felt in Class, Lunch, Activities, etc. He had no friends at school.  NONE.

Please take a moment to look at his drawing and ponder what it's like for a 14 yr. old boy to be repeatedly rejected by his peers, excluded from lunch, excluded from recess and removed from the classroom repeatedly.

There HAS TO BE A BETTER WAY.  Please don't let this happen to more children.

By: A Mom Who Cares