Zoe illusionofcompetence.blogspot.com WARNING: this post discusses child abuse We are two weeks into Autism Awareness Month and I count three casualties so far. Two stories in the news this week, of three autistic children murdered or abused by their parents and caretakers. In Washington, two autistic boys (ages 5 and 7) were discovered locked in a cage, where their father and his fiancee kept them every day, in unsanitary conditions. They weren’t allowed to walk around the house or to go to school. I don’t know their names. Their father, John Eckhart, told police, “What am I supposed to do? Let them run around the house? They’re autistic.” In Massachusetts, Kristin LaBrie was found guilty of “attempted murder, assault and battery on a disabled person and a child, and child endangerment,” after she withheld chemotherapy drugs from her 9-year-old autistic son, Jeremy Fraser. This actually happened years ago, but was…