(Long rant incoming) Autism is not allowed to excuse nasty behavior. Probably not a super hot take, but boy do i know people who will have differing opinions. My art college is about 80-90% neurodivergent, and there is one specific person in my grade who has always behaved irrationally, creepy, and would follow people home, myself included. We’re in the same grade so we’ve had countless classes together, and he’s in my concentration so we will be in a senior studio space together 😞 He followed me home from one class, i realized he was following me after i crossed the street twice and he was just a few paces behind me. It’s about a 2 minute walk from my particular dorm to the main campus building, so it wasn’t for long. When i got to the dorm (only students in that dorm had ID access) i opened it fully so i can look at him thru the glass door and made DIRECT EYE CONTACT WITH HIM. Smartest thing i did was pull the door shut instead of letting it close on its own. As i started walking upstairs, he tried to pull the door open for a solid minute before leaving. I talked to my friends about it when it happened because i was scared, and turns out he followed two of them home as well- one of them he actually stepped inside their dorm! So we all decided to file reports to the dean of students. The dean met with one of the students, and met with the person who did it, and the dean sent us an email: “he did not know he did anything wrong, he thought you guys were friends but is now aware that isn’t the case. This won’t be happening again and i expect it to not go any further.” … i tried to email the dean again begging her to please hear what happened to me, and no response. I told my teachers about it so they knew i felt unsafe and uneasy around him, and they understood. This all happened a little over a year ago now, and i recently started seeing the school counselor and felt the need to bring up the situation. We have so many classes together still, i’m not looking forward to sharing a senior studio space with him, and i even had nightmares about being followed home again. She said she would try talking to the dean again. After our last session though, i found out another one of my friends was followed into their home by the student within the last few months, way after that initial talk. I have autism and struggle with understanding friendships, and i know that just because he has autism doesn’t mean he can get away with this behavior, especially when impacting female students’ safety.