About six months ago, a book written for kids by a kid landed on my desk. I haven't stopped thinking about it.
This week, I called the author.
I figured he was the best expert to help quash a troubling assumption being made by too many people desperate to name the demon that compelled 20-year-old Adam Lanza to unleash unspeakable horror on Newtown, Conn.
Daniel Stefanski is 16 now, but when he called his mother one afternoon to tell her that he didn't know if he could bear the teasing anymore, he was about 12.
Daniel has autism. If you ask Daniel, he'll politely explain to you that autism is a developmental disorder that affects how his brain works. It is not a form of mental illness, nor is it a personality disorder.
Daniel will acknowledge that he has difficulty communicating with people, that he struggles to understand nuance and sarcasm and that, sometimes, he drives other kids crazy because he can't stop talking about one subject.
He'll tell you, too, how lonely he often feels.
That's when his mother, Mary Stefanski of Valparaiso, Ind., jumps in. She'll tell you that Daniel, and other children with autism and Asperger's syndrome, are no more likely to be violent than anyone else in the population, despite misleading media reports regarding Lanza that are making that very connection.