Parents are a bit... blah.
I got a lot of teasing when I was younger because I had asbergers and was prone to the strangest things, but nothing physically violent. It also grew less pronounced as I got older. By High School I could hardly notice bullying against me (Or by and large, the entire school was pretty chill.) There was one girl that got a lot of shit for looking like her face had an impacted skull and talked with a heavy slur (Due to her being malformed face, not mental disability) but mostly it was because she was a control freak bitch than she was ugly. People tried to be nice to her but often got distanced from her because her personality was so shitty.
I Mean, I'm against bullying and I understand why it happens... but for someone who should have received a lot of shit (Intellectual, mentally disabled even if functional, and into nerdy things) I didn't. So it's hard to empathize or understand completely at times.
When were you in "high school"? Nerd is no longer seen as being that negative.
To add to the discussion earlier about being seen as a freeloader, nerds are also less likely to be painted with the brush likely future "freeloader". They're more likely to be seen as patenting an invention or idea and/or running a major company. It's on some people's minds that "this guy's kind of awkward and annoying but he could be my future boss, so I should be nice."
They are likely to identify you as a "nerd" if you fit the profile, but accept you for it. But underneath the acceptance the need for labeling is really a way for most of them to subtly express "you're OK, but please tone it down at times", although I could see other motivations at work leading to the need for labeling such as if the person is a nerd him/herself and has embraced the identity or is attracted to people they identify as "nerds".
Add to that how Asperger's has been run through the media so much and how it is has come to be associated with Bill Gates, Einstein, etc...
So, the image of "freeloader" wouldn't be likely to come up, at least if the label "Asperger's" is used instead of "autism". But I could imagine that people may then be less understanding when someone with Asperger's gets upset whether it is related to Asperger's or not. Though they are unlikely to draw the connection consciously this would relate to them seeing the person as likely to have a pretty awesome life coming and so judging that they should be less upset about things, not more.
