Gavin was diagnosed with ADHD and Asperger syndrome when he was a small child. His mother Cortnie says that the family both experienced happy moments and challenges since then, writes Buzzfeed. Gavin fought hard to learn all the social cues and rules. “Being a teenager with Asperger’s is tough because all [of a] sudden people around you are consistently ‘breaking’ all the social do’s and don’t’s you’ve spent years learning,” his mom wrote on Facebook.
Last week something terrible happened to Gavin. A gang of – for him unknown – kids attacked and beat him up. After the incident, his mom wrote on Facebook:
n Thursday night, some kids were talking about how “it’s weird” that he is always by himself, attending events alone and watching people, and it was “creepy” how he wanted to be friends with people he didn’t know. On Friday night, another kid that overheard that conversation decided to take matters into his own hands and become judge and jury, and this is the result of that. He didn’t ask questions, didn’t get to know Gavin, never met him, and didn’t give him a chance to leave. He was called to meet someone, surrounded by people he didn’t know, choked, punched, and left laying on the pavement so he would “learn his lesson”.
But instead of pressing charges against the bullies Gavin hopes to raise awareness about Asperger’s syndrome. Instead, he wanted their community service to be disability-related, write a paper on Asperger’s, and watch a 20-minute video he taped where he talks about how it is to live with autism. They were gonna watch the video along with their families so they could see what they did to him.
Susan Mofatt is the mother of Gavin’s best friend Jonathan (below right). She posted Gavin’s story on Facebook.
Susan writes that it broke her heart to see what happened to Gavin. The emotional post have been spreading online like wildfire with over 200 000 shares on Facebook.
I am posting this with permission from Gavin’s mom. Gavin is one of Jonathan’s best friends and like a second son to…
Posted by Susan Moffatt on 30th June 2015
I’m so impressed with Gavin’s strength and how he turned meaningless violence to something that actually means something. For that, he deserves all the credit in the world.
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