By Lisa Wiederlight, Executive Director, SafeMinds
SafeMinds is proud to be a founding member of the Autism Safety Coalition, a group of national organizations that have come together to support Senate Bill 163, Avonte’s Law Act of 2015. This week, the Coalition is kicking off a social media campaign, “Yes to Avonte’s Law” to educate the community and the public at-large about the dangers of wandering behaviors in those with autism and other disabilities.
Wandering behaviors occur in about 49 percent of children with autism, according to a 2012 study released by the journal, Pediatrics. Tragically, cases involving a child with autism age nine and younger have ended in death 42 percent of the time. Avonte’s Law is named after Avonte Oquendo, a 14 year old boy with autism who vanished from his New York City school in 2013. His body was later found in the East River.
Since the beginning of June, six children with autism have died after wandering from a safe setting in the United States. Take action and help prevent further deaths by contacting your U.S. Senators, and share SafeMinds’ daily #Yes to Avonte’s Law posts on your social media.
More information on the wandering issue and resources for addressing it can be found on SafeMinds’ website, here
This initiative is part of our Policy and Justice Program. If you’d like to help, please donate to our Policy and Justice Fund.
