“Going the Distance” Event Review: Doug Flutie Jr. Foundation for Autism Law Enforcement
- Jeffrey Snyder
- Apr 13, 2024
- 3 min read
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Earlier this month, I had the honor of taking part in two events hosted by the Doug Flutie Jr. Foundation for Autism where the first of the two was a summit hosted in conjunction with William James College in Newton, Massachusetts on Wednesday April 3rd, 2024.
Now when it comes to the neurodiversity community and law enforcement, there is a fine line that tends to not be made smoothly on account that there is a lack of training and awareness for how law enforcement encounters a neurodivergent individual. Very often, we hear stories about how there are tragic consequences concerning neurodivergent/developmentally different individuals in the news, and sometimes the results we get about these consequences can vary on the part of the officer or the part of the individual.
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Of course, that concern also extends to public schools and that was part of the reason why I attended this summit which was to promote “School Safety Drills and Autism” to these brave men and women. Most recently, schools have been installing police officers as school resource officers in response to various tragedies that have happened in our nation’s schools as well as to show some extra authority to the student population.
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Still, the special education population tends to be an area of concern, considering that there are neurodivergent/developmentally different students, who while capable of being amongst neurotypical peers, can have a tendency to say wander off in the event of a school safety drill.
The school resource officer assigned might not be trained in dealing with neurodivergent/developmentally different students if they decide to elope or escape. The officer might assume that the student is a threat and will use their traditional methods to communicate with the student…especially if the student cannot respond to verbal commands.
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Autism Self-Advocate Sam Kanji and his mom, Ilese
Since I became a Flutie fellow in the Fall of 2022, I have been closely involved with supporting families and individuals impacted by autism/neurodiversity and some of those families have been impacted by profound autism. When I say, “profound autism,” I mean that the individual might not speak or display behaviors that could seem as threatening to the officer.
Without the training and awareness of law enforcement, tragedies can happen and I feel that this summit is just one of many that needs to transpire across the country because it’s not just schools but anywhere at any time that neurodivergent families/individuals can cross paths, even at the most strangest of times. One of the individuals who spoke was Sam Kanji and his mother Ilyse, who told a story of how Sam had touched their alarm system and law enforcement was sent to their house resulting in chaos.
While this was clearly a case of a false alarm, it does raise the question of how things could have gone in a situation where the officer wasn’t as understanding to how sensitive the individual is? Listening to this made me think that there could be a family out there who is affected by autism/neurodiversity and the officer treats this like any other situation without realizing the developmental difference that this family deals with.
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Of course, it’s all about building bridges between law enforcement and the autism/neurodiversity community, especially now in this day and age where a lot of police officers are judged based on their actions without understanding the full context. If more trainings and summits like this are held, then the bridges could be built on a longer scale that will benefit law enforcement and the autism/neurodiversity community for the long term.
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It’s also important to remember that some of the police officers who attended are actually parents/guardians of neurodivergent/developmentally different individuals, so they can understand the pain and frustration some families go through. They know what it’s like to see their neurodivergent loved one wander off or display behaviors that can affect others which makes events like this so important both in the classroom and out in the community.
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Catch you all later!!
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