Santhanam and his wife Bindu were joined by Robert and Marci Flowers in a lawsuit filed last summer against their former next door neighboors Vidyut Gopal and Parul Agrawal.
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“This has been pretty devastating for us, but we are doing our best to cope with it”, Gopal, an engineer at a Silicon Valley company, was quoted as saying.
Three months later, the Mercury News reported that the family moved out of their home to another house in Sunnyvale where, they say, they have had no problems with their neighbors. The Flowerses, who were renting the Sunnyvale home, also have moved.
The plaintiffs were trying to fight for the release of medical and school records.
The judge told them they were ‘smart, creative people, ‘ who should set a good example for their kids, and work it out like adults. If they still can not resolve their issues, the case will proceed to trial in November. A judge recommended the two sides head to mediation. “That is not the solution”, said Ronald Hampton, the president of the District of Columbia Autism Society.
But Gopal and Agrawal say their autistic son, with rare exceptions, was under their care or a baby sitter’s at all times and that the incidents were not as serious as alleged. From their accounts, the 11-year-old is not to blame.
In the controversial lawsuit, the plaintiffs say the boy was a nuisance in their South Bay neighborhood.
A judge last July agreed to impose a preliminary injunction against the boy and his parents to ensure the boy does not assault in the neighborhood or their personal property. They also claim the parents never apologized or took responsibility for the attacks.
She and other parents said they feared that if the suit was successful, families with autistic children could be run out of neighborhoods everywhere, based exclusively on a “public nuisance” claim.
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But autism advocates worry that this case opens more families up to the threat of legal action, often for behavior their children simply can’t control due to their condition. “No injuries were alleged – it was grotesquely out of proportion”.
