Jul 03 2008
Wanderers
Last night, I heard about Colin Detwiler, an autistic boy who wandered away from his summer camp and ended up walking along the highway. It apparently took the camp thirty minutes to call the authorities. I may have nightmares for a few days, and I’m sure his mom will have them for months.
This is one reason why I have been reluctant to entertain the thought of putting Gus in a regular camp. We’ve been lucky that he gets summer services so far through his school. It’s a ‘camp’ environment, but with individuals trained to work with autistic children. I always make a point to warn anyone who works with Gus about his past history of wandering.
His first school lost him one day. He had roamed into another class and it took the teachers about twenty minutes to locate him in the building. They didn’t tell me until a couple of weeks later. That was a very short school year for him.
I’m going to the school next week, and I think I will have another chat about Gus with the staff, once more, just to play it safe.
This is a great concern for so many parents of children with special needs. I know one of our parents at International Mosaic Down Syndrome Association set up in their IEP for special training and rules for their school in case their child went missing. They had in place something like “Code Adam” but instead placed the child’s name. In your case it would be, “Code Gus” When the child went missing the office would announce over the loud speaker “Code Gus” and every teach would look throughout their room, in the hall, and the custodians would check the bathrooms and the outside perimiter. This way, everyone knew to look and the child would be found quickly. They also had something in place with the local police department in case the child was not found in the school.
@Michelle: Yeah, I’m with you on that one. Gus has been lost twice - once at school and once with another caregiver. Now I don’t let anyone take my kids out unless he has someone specifically to shadow him, and even then I’m very, very cautious. I’m very familiar with the program he’s in now, but when he first started there it took the entire year before I would let him go to a field trip without me chaperoning. And I was a mess the whole day. I don’t think you can be too careful when it comes to kids.
@Kristy: That was very smart to get the police involved! I tried about a year ago to get our local sheriff department to start some department training on dealing with autistic kids. They were in the process of getting something from the state, which I think I may follow up on. Thanks for the comment!
I don’t blame you at all for going and having another talk with the school. A parent can never be too cautious but especially when you are concerned for your child with special needs. Parenthood is so scary to me, just the thought of it…
Anyway, happy 4th!
www.singleinla.today.com
@ClinicallyClueless: There’s actually a letter in his permanent file from our old pediatrician about his wandering, and an alert is also on his IEP. But I also make it very clear each time he has a staff change that he has to be closely watched. Believe me, I make it known that I’m one of those parents who will be paying very close attention to my son’s caregivers. Thanks for the suggestion - it’s very important to stay on top of things when any child is concerned.