Autism Society of Greater Orlando President Donna Lorman, right, demonstrates a de-escalation technique with her son Drew Lorman, who has autism, center, during a first aid training session at the Civic Center from Kissimmee, Florida (Willie J. Allen Jr./Orlando Sentinel/TNS)
ORLANDO, Fla. — Donna Lorman wanted her son’s green pop tube, so she tried to take it from him. Drew Lorman, a 31-year-old man with autism, protected him, pushing his mother back harder each time she tried to pry him from her hands.
“No,” he said during one attempt. “Stay away,” she said in another.
Drew Lorman could have easily knocked his mother to the ground, or worse, if it hadn’t been for years of behavioral analysis that, according to Donna Lorman, reduced him from 96 aggressive episodes per hour to two or fewer in a month. But he could face deadly force if a police officer tried to stop him without knowing that Drew, who stands more than six feet tall and weighs more than 300 pounds, has the cognitive age of a 7-year-old.
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That’s the kind of situation Donna Lorman, president of the Autism Society of Greater Orlando, said she hopes to prevent for her son and others with autism while recently speaking to law enforcement officials from across Central Florida at the Civic Center. from Kissimmee. After her demonstration of how mother and son interact, she high-fived Drew, indicating a job well done.
“I had been trained to replace those behaviors, but if we don’t listen, then we provoke them, and then what do we have? Battery in an LEO,” Lorman said, using the abbreviation for police officer. “Easy, if we know what book we are reading.”
The recent training comes as House Bill 829 moves through the Florida Legislature. Introduced by Rep. Paula Stark, R-St. Cloud, the bill would require officers to receive at least four hours of in-person instruction on how to deal with people on the autism spectrum, from identification and interview techniques to tactics and tension reduction procedures in cases of missing persons that involve them. The bill is intended to be a complement to the recently passed Protect Our Loved Ones Act, which authorizes local law enforcement agencies to maintain a database of people with disabilities.
The proposed training requirements would further educate officers on the restrictions of Florida’s Baker Act, which does not allow people to be involuntarily committed if they are diagnosed with only autism spectrum disorder, which is not a mental illness.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that 1 in 36 children are diagnosed with autism, a rate that has increased in recent decades as experts more accurately identify the signs at a young age and as they age. Cultural perceptions, particularly in communities of color, are beginning to shift. change. Characteristics of autism include hypersensitivity to stimuli, delays in learning and social skills, and, in some cases, elevated pain thresholds.
Lorman, a longtime advocate, and Bal Harbor Police Detective Hector Gonzalez have trained thousands of officers in Florida and Georgia for nearly a decade, and in recent training used their adult children as examples in several role-playing game scenarios. The couple held an eight-hour training session the day before at the Volusia County Sheriff’s Office, which Lorman said is one of two Central Florida agencies requiring autism awareness training, along with the Police Department of New Smyrna Beach.
Gonzalez, whose son Christopher also participated in the training, said preparing officers is critical, as it can often mean the difference between life and death for someone who, despite their chronological age, may not understand what is happening. is happening.
“I hate to say it about my profession, but we have a couple of bad apples out there and we know that officer is the one who is going to find his son and things are going to get crazy,” Gonzalez said.
Stark said his bill is the result of conversations with advocates and community leaders who pointed out the need for additional training for law enforcement. He watched the recent training, grimacing like many others in the room as he watched body camera footage of an Arizona police officer tackling a teenager who tried to walk away after he was seen self-stimulating, or “stimming,” playing with a rope. in a city park.
In that case, a neighbor who knew the teen intervened and the officer realized the teen had autism. That officer was sued in federal court for excessive force, but was later cleared of wrongdoing by a jury, The Arizona Republic reported.
“That’s an example of what we don’t want to happen,” Stark said. “If a little bit of this prevention solves anything, then we’ll be ahead of the game.”
Still, these types of faulty interactions are not uncommon.
Last year, the parents of a 9-year-old boy with special needs filed a federal lawsuit against the Oviedo Police Department after two officers handcuffed him and threatened to take him to jail for an assault, despite protests. of the teachers who stated that The child had a “behavioral intervention plan.”
Lorman has countless such stories. But she is pushing to make a difference.
“If we don’t start monitoring our children at their developmental age versus their chronological age, they will continue to get hurt,” Lorman warned officers. “And you too.”
© 2024 Orlando Sentinel
Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC
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