This College Kid’s Classmates Were Furious With Them For Giving Their Project Partner A “Hard Task” Because She Has Autism
This twenty-year-old is currently attending college and has a peer named Melissa in one of their classes. They never interacted with Melissa that much, but they do know that she has Autism spectrum disorder (ASD).
And just last week, they ended up being paired with Melissa and a few other students for a group project.
Once the group was assigned, everyone also split up into duo partners. But, after they learned their partner was Melissa, they were approached by another classmate with bizarre instructions.
“Another member of our group told me to only give Melissa the easy tasks due to her ‘condition.’ And, not wanting any trouble, I went along with it and gave her only the easy tasks,” they recalled.
However, while the whole group was working in the library one day, they realized that Melissa sped through her tasks super quickly. Meanwhile, they were still working.
They let Melissa be, though, until a few minutes later– when she apparently “mustered up all of her courage” to ask one question.
“I already finished here. Can I help you?” Melissa reportedly asked.
At first, they tried telling Melissa that they could handle the rest of their tasks on their own. But, this clearly hurt Melissa– because after staying silent for a few more minutes, she spoke up again.
“I don’t like group projects. Every time, the group never lets me participate properly– like I am incapable. It upsets me,” Melissa said.
Antonioguillem – illustrative purpose only, not the actual person
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This broke their heart because, even though Melissa’s facial expression was blank, they could tell that her eyes looked truly sad.
And at that moment, they really empathized with her. After all, they considered how frustrating it must be to constantly be treated as less than just because of the way you were born.
So, they decided to forget what their classmate said and ask Melissa for help. And as soon as they passed some tasks onto her, Melissa’s eyes immediately lit up and were “sparking with joy.”
Plus, with Melissa’s help, they were actually able to fly through all of the tasks much more quickly than if they had done it alone.
However, when they went to turn in the assignment the next day, their other group members were apparently really mad.
In fact, the group was angry they gave Melissa a “hard task” that she “could not fulfill.” On top of that, the group called them selfish and cold-hearted for doing that to Melissa.
They never intended to upset anyone but believed that Melissa truly wanted to participate and be afforded the same respect as the other group members.
Nonetheless, they have started to question if they were somehow a jerk in this situation.
Do you think it was the classmate’s place to speak for Melissa? How would you have handled this situation?
You can read the original post on Reddit here.
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