These parents had to do something when their son was named 'Most Annoying Male' at school

When you spend the whole year working hard and trying to get good grades, you want to see your efforts recognized. It makes everything you’ve done at school worthwhile, especially if it hasn’t been a smooth ride. While scoring well on tests and assignments is one way for this work to be rewarded, there are other ways students can have their achievements celebrated.
Many schools across the nation like to hold an award ceremony at the end of the year to acknowledge what their kids have done. Sometimes, these are used to highlight the kids who have performed the best; other times, they’re just a bit of fun to commemorate some memorable moments. In these instances, teachers give out awards for things like the funniest student or best artist. It’s nothing major, but it’s something nice to make the children feel proud.
Of course, once you start handing out trophies referring to the kids as being annoying, that’s when you start to cross the line. It’s even worse if the student you give it to has autism.

Mocking his differences

Bailly Preparatory Academy may once have considered itself an excellent school for kids across Gary, Indiana to attend. However, in the last few months, it’s reputation has gone down the drain. That’s because it’s the place where an autistic boy had his disability highlighted for all the wrong reasons.

The students and faculty weren’t celebrating that the child was unique; they were mocking him for being different. It was all hidden behind an awards ceremony…

The awards ceremony

This school in Indiana thought that handing out awards to kids at the end of the year was just a bit of harmless fun. Some of the students would go home with gold trophies that symbolized what they’d contributed to their class over the last year.

It wasn’t meant to be a big deal, and it certainly wasn’t supposed to cause a massive uproar among parents and other people online. However, if the school had wanted to avoid creating a commotion, they should have thought more about what awards they were giving out. Some of them were just asking for trouble.

Not something to celebrate

There were only ten students who walked away with an award that day, and Akalis Castejon was one of the fortunate ones. However, to the parents watching in the audience, they didn’t think there was anything about his award that was worth celebrating.

That’s because Akalis had been given a trophy for being the ‘Most Annoying Male’ in his class. Pointing someone out for not being easy to get along with didn’t seem like a good idea anyway, especially as the child was only in fifth grade. However, that wasn’t what Castejon’s family and other parents took particular offense to that day.

Living with a disability

Akalis’ win struck a nerve because the boy had autism. He had a disability that prevented him from acting and communicating in the same way as the rest of his classmates. While that may have made him harder to deal with in class, that didn’t mean he deserved to be ridiculed in front of the school.

The boy certainly didn’t choose to be autistic, and his condition is something he has to live with every day. His parents love him the way he is, and they wouldn’t swap him for anything, no matter how “annoying” people might find him to be.