Mom gets furious at a man who deeply insults her son in his wheelchair

Adele Colby was forced to defend her six-year-old autistic son against insults when the two went to a cafe.

Colby's son Vinny sat in a wheelchair at Herby's cafe in Princes Quay. Vinny is not only autistic, but he also has cerebral palsy.

Colby, 33, said that her son tends to be loud sometimes. This draws disapproving looks and mean comments from others.

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She usually ignores it. But this time, she didn't let it slide. The Hull Daily Mail reported her saying:

"We were in Herby's, and Vinny was in his wheelchair, so you can clearly see he's got a disability."

She continued:

"He was excited and he was being loud and this old man just walked up to me and said 'noisy [expletive] brat.' I usually don't say anything but I said 'Excuse me, that's my son you're talking about.

The mother decided to put the man in his place:

"I said 'that's so wrong, that's disgusting to say that about him', and in the end, he walked out. The ladies in the shop were lovely, I was fuming.”

According to Colby, the majority of aggression comes from the older generation:

"I think they think 'we never had this in my day'. I think they think the kids are spoilt, they don't realize they have a disability."

Generally, Colby tends to "bite [her] tongue when hearing the comments. She "dreads" going out knowing she'll have to face them.

Just one week before, another man told her "Don't you want to get your kid under control?" as Vinny lay on a McDonald's floor.

Unlike many autistic kids, Vinny speaks his mind with "no filter." His mother think people should know more about the illness:

"He's maybe the total opposite of what people think is a typical child with autism, but they don’t realise it's a spectrum and that there’s another side to children with autism."

Colby says she's thankful he doesn't "fully understand when others in public pass comment on him."

"He does now realise that he’s different as he uses a wheelchair and he does talk about it, he says 'why did God give me cerebral palsy?' but I don't think he understands feelings and things when people say things about him - which is a good thing."

The mother wishes she had taken a picture of the older bully. For now, she's speaking out to help raise awareness so others won't make nasty comments to other kids.

Another mother faced a worse case of bullying when a teenager physically assaulted both her and her autistic son.

Erica Godfrey went to pick up her 14-year-old son Isaiah from the Thomason Skate Park. He told her someone threatened him.

Godfrey, who also has a laryngeal papillomatosis, was trying to make friends with the teenager. Godfrey confronted the teen.

She explained her son's condition. Instead of being empathetic, the boy punched Godfrey hard in her face.

Luckily, police in the area caught the boy after he ran off soon after. Godfrey is calling for more cameras to be put in the park.

Even persons we trust to treat our children well, especially those with special needs, fail horribly.

That's what happened for 10-year-old Akian who began showing signs of emotional distress. His father, Stuart Chaifetz, stepped in to figure out the problem.

He attached a tape recorder to Akian's pocket and listened to a six-hour audio clip as a result. What he found was highly disturbing.

He heard remarks from within the special needs school that left his son torn up. Yelling, berating comments, and orders to "shut up" were also revealed.

The teacher's aide was subsequently fired. But Chaifetz felt further investigations should have been done.

Clearly, even those who are aware of autistic children's condition can portray atrocious behavior.

One can hope that persons work on being more empathetic to the innocent young ones who don't deserve such heartless reactions.