If you know anything about Asperger syndrome, obsessive-compulsive disorder, and anxiety disorders, then you know there is no way in you-know-what this child should be doing what she is doing.

If a teacher put a student with this diagnosis through something similar to this that provoked these kinds of intense and destructive emotional responses in school, the teacher would be in hot water. Job loss would be a real concern. Children and teens with these kinds of real diagnoses need a special kind of compassion and help.

This is not a child championing a cause. This is a child being used by adults who should know better. This girl should be at home, going to school, and living a happy life with supportive adults to guide her. Instead, she’s a prop for people who are using her in the most despicable way.

The anger, hatred, and disgust on her face is not normal for a child of this age. It is tragic what has been done to her. It would appear all of the adults who should be carefully guiding her and even protecting her as she navigates the difficult teen years with the added challenge of multiple diagnoses have utterly and completely failed her.

I pray she gets the help she needs and her life does not end up more tragic than it already appears to be.

Edited to Add:

I found this Op-Ed this morning after I published this. It’s so good.

I Deal With Depression and Anxiety Too & What the Left Is Doing to Greta Thunberg Is Child Abuse

People who have had depression and anxiety, as Thunberg has described herself, are already prone to painfully strong reactions to negative news. A constant diet of negative news only exacerbates those feelings.

In my case, without treatment that diet would soon cripple me with despair, fear, and pain.

And that brings us back to the word evil.

Purposefully taking a child who has suffered from these mental illnesses and encouraging her to feed on a diet of fear and cataclysm in order to advance a political agenda is evil because doing so ignores the incredible burden of pain she will needlessly bear. I can’t imagine that burden, and I’m an adult.