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A pair of Utah parents is suing the University of Utah and a Salt Lake City newspaper, arguing an autism research program damaged their son's reputation and caused him extreme emotional distress.
Diana Schaffer and George McDonald say managers of the university's iSTAR program suggested their son has autism as part of a larger fundraising and public relations push that resulted in a story and photos in the Deseret News.
Attorneys for the University of Utah and the program reject those claims. They have asked a 3rd District judge to dismiss the lawsuit, writing in documents filed Feb. 3 that the allegations are unfounded.
Schaffer, a Salt Lake City attorney and the boy's mother, filed the suit after the newspaper ran a photo of her son in January 2013 with a headline indicating he was autistic.
Attorney Jeff Hunt said the Deseret News "was invited to cover the iStar workshop and accurately reported the information provided to it by the event sponsor."
The newspaper pulled the story from its website at the parents' request.
The parents contend the program caters not just to autistic children, but to any who are "neurodiverse," which includes those with conditions like dyslexia or Attention Deficit Disorder.
Her son is one of several children and teens to participate in the iSTAR program, a "community-based participatory research/outreach autism program involving students, families, school districts, community partners and businesses," according to the program's website.
Schaffer details in 2014 documents that her son, whose age does not appear in the files and is identified only by his initials, has not been diagnosed with autism and joined the program because he is "intellectually gifted," adept at spatial lessons and computer programming.
The Deseret News' publication of the article about iStar was "excruciatingly painful for him to endure," the parents contend, saying it led to ridicule from fellow students and the boy's expulsion from his private school, among other consequences.
The parents also named Deseret Digital Media, newspaper managing editor Richard Hall and publisher Paul Edwards in the suit.
Schaffer alleges damages reaching hundreds of thousands of dollars.