On Friday, a reader wrote to us and described a situation that occurred on September 23 on one of the MZK Bolesławiec buses. The complainant:
My son has autism with multiple disabilities, is disabled, cannot speak and, when frightened, squeals.
She explained:
Unfortunately, we experienced a very unpleasant situation on the bus (...). My son became frightened and squealed three times, so the driver shouted at him to be quiet or he would throw him off immediately. I replied that my son had autism and did not understand; however, this did not interest the driver, who continued grumbling under his breath.
So I asked him whether disabled children were not allowed to ride buses. He rudely replied that children in wheelchairs were a different matter.
She concluded: – I concluded from this that, according to the driver, disabled children are divided into better and worse ones, the latter not being allowed onto the bus.
We asked the Bolesławiec company about the matter. Andrzej Jagiera, President of MZK Bolesławiec:
On September 23, 2022, (...) a passenger boarded the bus with a school-age child. After boarding, the child behaved very noisily, shouting continuously, which could have been irritating both for the driver and the other passengers. The driver asked the child's guardian to try to quiet the child. After being addressed, the passenger informed the driver that the child was autistic and might behave this way. After receiving this information, the driver apologized to the passenger and her child.
Diagnosing autism is very difficult. Usually, autistic people do not look different from others, so our driver was not aware that the child was autistic.
The head of MZK adds:
I would like to inform you that MZK drivers receive regular training in transporting passengers, including both disabled and autistic people.
After the reported incident (...), all MZK drivers were retrained, as a reminder, in transporting autistic people.