Here's a hypothetical for you:
Its April 1. You emerge from the shower to find your thirteen year old child nowhere to be found. What's your first thought?
If your child is neurotypical, you might think you've been pranked.
If your child is autistic you'll be dialing 911 as you rush frantically out the door and look up and down the street, praying you'll find him.
"Kids wander," you might say, "what's so bad about that?"
For kids with autism, statistically, quite a lot.
Nearly half of children with autism are at risk for elopement behavior. 1 35% of families with autistic children report that their children are rarely, if ever, able to communicate their address and phone number by any means. Many of my fellow parents have children who are partly to completely non-verbal.
In 2012, a paper published by the National Autism Society reported that 91% of children who died as a result of wandering behavior had drowned. 2
Very recently these horrifying statistics came alive for me in a very real way when Avonte Oqendo, a non-verbal autistic teenager wandered away from his school in Queens, NY and subsequently perished, police believe by drowning in the East River. His family was known by some of my friends within the autism community. Very quickly this was not a "news story" to us, it was one of our own.
My good friend Jill Smo of Yeah Good Times was pondering all of these terrible statistics recently. The idea came to her to create an event to draw awareness to this problem. Jill organized a Candlelight Vigil for Autistic Children Who Lost Their Lives After Wandering. As of this morning over 5,700 people have indicated they are attending this virtual event.
Jill asked in the community if any parents wished to have a lost child remembered today, and we were as horrified as she to have over 90 names very quickly submitted. When you love an autistic kid, it is a sobering reminder that elopement behaviors are a very real and immediate threat to your child's safety.
Today I'm lighting a candle, and I'm asking my friends to educate themselves about autism and wandering. AWAARE has compiled a ton of resources for parents, family and community members. They have Big Red Toolkits for families, caregivers and first responders, and lots of resources to help people understand autism-related wandering and to educate people on what they should do if they encounter an unaccompanied, non-verbal child or adult.
Please join me today in lovingly remembering these young victims and sending a caring thought or prayer to the families who grieve for them. If you are so inclined, please join us on Facebook and light a real or a virtual candle and then help share statistics and information to your own friends and family.
Kaitlin Bacile
Au-Juna Banks-Taylor age 9
Ryan Barrett
Christian Baucom age 6
Jason Baucom
Adam Benhamama
Owen Black age 7
Aiden Bower age 4
Ashley Brock
Noah Burke
Carolyne Burns
Dena Burns age 6
John Burton Jr. age 7
Colum Canning
Kaymania Catt age 5
Alex Christopher 6/3/2005
Zachary Clark
Jeremiah Conn age 6
Holden Cottingham 2013
Taariq Cross age 7
Christian Dejons
James Delorey
David DeSantiago age 11
Devonte Dye age 5
Tatiana Eiland-Clinton age 3
Devine Farrier
Justin Gore Jr.
Darryl Gosein
Anthony Guerra age 9
Tristian Guffey
Liam Hamilton age 7
Elizabeth Hathaway age 10
Savannah Hauser
Benjy Heil
Jack Hensley
Emily Hope
Drew Howell age 2
Tristin Jeras 7/26/2012
Aiden Johnson
Marquail Johnson age 8
Jackson Kastner age 4
Kesia Kearse
Nathan Kinderdine
Michael Kingsbury age 7
Adlai Kugblenu
Anthony Kuznia age 11
Bernard Latimore
Aiden Lawson age 3
Kieran le Couteur
Erik Lippmann
Alexie Loper age 4
Mikaela Lynch 5/15/2013
Charlie Manley age 16
Savannah Martin 2/20/2011
Donivan Martin age 16
Savannah Martin age 7
Jared McGuire
Mason Medlam
Logan Mitcheltree
Christopher Morrison age 5
Blake Murrell age 4
Alyvia Navarro age 3
Avonte Oquendo age 14
Dominic Overton
Ariana Pivacheck age 9
Evan Reed 2012
Hannah Ross age 7
Blake Ryan 4/19/2011 age 4
Christina Sankey age 29
Luke Selwyn
Nicholas Shaffer age 12
Kaleb Shavers age 6
Kadeem Shillingford age 15
Jonah Smith
Julian Stacey New Zealand
Aaron Steele
Travis Stratton 3/1/2014 age 4
Kaliya Sullivan
Sean Taglione 1/29/2012 age 12
Desmond Thomas
Kristina Vlassenko age 10
Christopher Wakeman age 23
Amarie Walker age 4
Skyler Wayne
Freddie Williams age 13
Davin Williams age 15
NNR age 5 Bradenton, FL
NNR age 11 Stafford, VA
NNR age 12 Houston, TX
1. Anderson C, et al “Occurrence and Family Impact of Elopement in Children With Autism Spectrum Disorders” Pediatrics 2012; DOI: 10.1542/peds.2012-0762.
2. McIlwain & Fournier "1. Anderson C, et al “Occurrence and Family Impact of Elopement in Children With Autism Spectrum Disorders” Pediatrics 2012; DOI: 10.1542/peds.2012-0762." <http://nationalautismassociation.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/Lethal-Outcomes-In-Autism-Spectrum-Disorders_2012.pdf>
