How Autism Threatens Childrens' Lives

Several times a month there are stories in the news about autistic children who have walked away from home. Some of the time the children are found safely, many times they are not. Up until now I have not been posting these stories, as they are difficult for parents of autistic children to read. ...as they are difficult for me to read. I now think that I should have been.

I think people need to understand how vulnerable most of these kids are because they lack a healthy fear of their environment.

I do this to make a point to those who say that trying to find a 'cure' for autism is either morally wrong or physically dangerous.

Lost child found by Rockland police
by Max Bowen
Friday, October 21, 2005

An autistic child found at midnight on Monday in Rockland was later reunited with his mother, according to Rockland Deputy Police Chief John Llewellyn.

On Monday, Oct. 17 at 11:45 p.m., police received a call from the fire department reporting a small boy walking near the intersection of Westwater and Grove streets. A detail officer found the child a short time later.

"He wasn't wearing any shoes or socks," said Llewellyn. "The child was non-responsive."

Police were able to coax the boy into a police cruiser using potato chips. Officer Thomas MacDonald drove the boy, who police described as being 6 or 7 years old, around the area where he was found in the hopes he would indicate where he lived. The child gave no response, however, and the officer took him back to the station.

Police contacted the fire department, who took the child by ambulance to Brockton Hospital while the Department of Social Services was notified to send a caseworker. The Plymouth County Sheriff's Department performed a reverse 911 call to all the homes within a one-mile radius of the area where the boy was found.

At 12:12 a.m. the boy's mother came to the station to pick up the child. She informed officers that her child was autistic and unable to communicate. The family had recently moved to the area.