Autism is not just one thing, one condition, or one set of behaviors.
It is challenges with social skills, repetitive behaviors, speech and nonverbal communication. It is 1 in 36 children and 1 in 45 adults in the United States today. It is conditions of ADHD, anxiety and depression, GI issues, seizures and sleep disorders that come with it. It is a genetic soup that mixes with some environmental factors to cause the disorder – not vaccines.
April is Autism Acceptance Month. In honor of the diversity it brings, we will learn from Latosha Mitchell special educator and owner of Elevate My Education. She will not only tell us about the disorder and how we can support autistic school-aged children and their families
Notes
Casey Phillips: So as we were talking about Cowboy Mouth, Pepper, on Jazz Fest weekend. Happy Festival Internationale. Happy Jazz Fest weekend, everybody. Yeah, this is a festive Friday to say in South Louisiana. It is I don't know if I'd use the word festive for the anti union and labor bill that made it out of committee yesterday at the Capitol. I don't know if that's necessarily the word festive that I would use or the influence of once again, the conservative national right money into the state of Louisiana. But that is not what we're talking about today. We're going to stay festive. In the chat, if anybody's heading to Festival Internationale in Lafayette as I said, raise that hand and say who you're most excited to see. And if you're going to Jazz Fest, along with the other 7 billion people on the planet, all in the fairgrounds at one time to get Crawfish spread what day you going, who are you the most excited to see, and of course, make sure and put like the band that's going to give you cool kid points in there too. Not just, the headliner, everybody, you got to play that game and do that. But if you're just excited to go see, I don't know. Actually, quite frankly, I said out of everybody that I thought this from the beginning, when they released it, I'm old enough where I'm like, man, I remember when Queen Latifah was just like a hardcore militant rapper. That made people uncomfortable, not with Steve Martin in a rom com, right? Like when she first came out, man, she was revolutionary and it was incredible, man. And that was like one of the first her and MC light were probably two of the first artists that spoke to power about things I'd never thought about when I was in middle school. And so I've got to tell you, man, I'd like to see Queen Latifah at jazz fest pepper. If you could time, if you could time travel to the fairgrounds today, who you'd go see.
Pepper Roussel: I have an aversion to Port A Potty, so I'm not going.
Casey: However I didn't ask you if you wanted to see a concert in a Port A Potty. I'm saying if you went to Jazz Fest, who do you want to see?
Pepper: And it's raining, and every year it rains. And you end up covered in randomness. That is on the fairgrounds. However, I hear Samar Joy does a fine show, and I've not seen her. She was in town not too long ago, and I can't remember where she, I want to say she was, for some reason, I thought she was playing downtown. But it doesn't really matter. The point is, I would go to a place that actually has restrooms. Just the earth went on fire, but that's just me.
Casey: Look, I will make sure that you have your, I will make sure you have your VIP golf cart to go to the grandstands, bathrooms, and I will always take care, we will take care of you next time you go, but I, in all seriousness, I'm going to turn it back over to you as, being part of the walls that we fight for equity in the arts. If you do go to the fairgrounds, one of our muralists a young African American creator who is eons beyond his years at 30, his name is Lakeen Wilson, and he has his art booth set up around Congo square stage. We all know that's the best pocket for going shopping to jazz fest and stop by that young creators booth and buy art. From Lakeem Wilson. Y'all remember his name? He did the mural of Miss Juanita Craft on the corner of MLK and Malcolm X in Dallas that we did a couple of months ago. He's an incredible creator, and so I am fighting for the arts, spend money on art, support local creators from the region of Texas, Louisiana, and Mississippi, of course, because we can't forget our friends in Mississippi. With that being said, Miss Pepper, you want to rock this?
Pepper: Yeah, but I'm good. I full disclosure. I'm a little salty to find out that Lafayette is trying to compete with New Orleans for a festival on the same weekend. It's rude and uncalled for. Y'all could have found another weekend.
Casey: In the spirit of equity, in the spirit of equity, right? When you're talking about people in Louisiana, right? The different, you all know how much it costs to go to the fairgrounds. And from parking and getting in and in Lafayette, Louisiana, they let you still bring your ice chest. It is free and you can hang out at people's front porches. And they said, and they do it the right way. Festival Internationale is an incredible experience. If you've never had it, the music is. From around the world. It is a wonderful time in Lafayette, Louisiana and downtown. That's okay. I'm going back.
Pepper: So Katie is telling me it is the only festival that happened the last weekend in April. And yes, Reverend Anderson, I am well aware it's been going on for years. My people, it's from my Opealousas and le beau and le brie. I know what's been going on. That don't matter to me. Nothing exists outside of Orleans Parish. All right, maybe Baton Rouge. Anyways, happy Friday y'all. Thank you for being here. I really do appreciate you spending part of your Friday mornings with me.Today we are honoring diversity and that diversity is coming not in a cultural difference, but a capacity difference. So we are going to hear from folks who are within the space. Who know a lot more about. Autism and that I could ever hope to imagine and hoping to learn quite a bit today. We will start off this morning with Miss Deon, since you are in the car and if you just It's come off mute. We will listen to what you've got to say from Steppin for Autism. If you wouldn't mind letting us know who you are, what you do, and what we need to know to be involved, I'd appreciate it. Your five minutes starts now.
Deon Hey: Hello, my name is Deon, and I run a non profit called Steppin for Autism. Steppin for Autism is more community based, but we do things that impact the kids in our system that has autism. Every month we may give a basketball camp for just autistic kids. Christmas, we give gifts for just autistic kids. If they need a bike, we buy, teach them how to ride a bike. We do everything that we do, our organization do. You can see kids every day on the spectrum, and they receive gifts from our program. IPads, we teach them how, at least, even with my own son, we teach them nonverbal autistic kids to be verbal. We give them iPads. We create sensory rooms at parks or at any events. Say like the festival you guys were just talking about where our organization will create a sensory room that way autistic kids can come and have a safe place. What else? Thanksgiving, we do a turkey drive just for autistic kids. Just about every month or where there's a need, we step in for kids with autism.
Pepper: So tell me a little bit more about how did you get involved with autism? It seems not necessarily one of the prevalent nonprofits or areas to work. How did you get involved? What drew you to it? And you tell us about what does it mean to hold a camp for a basketball tournament for autistic kids?
Deon: It means that, okay. We have low noise. Some low lights some of those things that are sensitive autistic kids, and we get one on one. We get enough staff that are willing to volunteer, or some coaches, and they teach them the fundamentals. A lot of times with autistic kids, their motor skills might not be the best. Socially, we allow them to, if you don't want to hold the ball right now, you can run and you can scream. We give those moments so they can be themselves. I also started the nonprofit because I have an autistic son that is now 22 years old.
Pepper: I hear some of the most amazing things have started by mamas who had a kid that they wanted to do something for up to and including Barbie. But beyond that, right? There had been for a few years scuttlebutt that vaccines caused autism. And from what I can understand, that has been disproven. But do you have any, do you know what does?
Deon: I don't I'm not going to say vaccines or I don't know what caused it. But I will say that a lot of money is being raised for research for vaccination or different things, but they're not helping our kids. We need hands on.
Pepper: Hold up. I need to hear more about this. What are you talking about? They're not helping our kids. Tell me. Okay, so there's walks, autism speak walks, there's different fundraisers being raised for, just donate, any store you go to, donate a dollar for autism or donate this. From my knowledge, all those funds are raised for vaccinations or research to find out how it came about, but none is actually happening to the ones that have autism that may need to go to a horseback camp. You have to pay for that. So why is the money being used to provide those things for the autistic kids? Why we can't see the money hands on them benefiting from it. Like in Louisiana, there's no place that parents can get a break. It's a lot raising autistic kids. So there's no support groups on a daily basis. There's no place where kids autistic kids can go and be able to be themselves. There's no place that We can teach them and prepare to live independently, like I'm working with my son. My son was not verbal. I stopped working, taught went to school to be at in home therapy. I did therapy. I homeschooled him. And he also attended college, no one thought that he would be able to speak. I can show you videos of him being able to express himself speaking right now. I'm getting his apartment prepared so he can live independently. I taught him how to cook. So those are the things I would like to offer autistic kids and it's not here. So the funding raised should have programs like that.
Pepper: No, I agree with that completely. So I've got a couple of questions that I do want to ask before we get to Reverend Anderson to talk about the justice adjacent, justice adjacency. For folks who have special needs, but help me understand especially the difference between then and now. And the reason I ask is because when you said you quit your job, baby, who can afford to do that and take care of the child?
Deon: I couldn't. But here's the thing. My son was in school. We had no clue what autism was, but it was a teacher who said it was a disability. It's a teacher that seen signs in him. She said, Hey, she said, I don't want you to be offended. She said, but some of the things that your son is displaying reminds me of my child. That's Asperger's. So Asperger's is the mild form of autism. So she said, do you mind if I send you a referral? I said, no, I don't mind. Because at this point, and then we all doesn't do this, like my son was the youngest son, he was four, both parents were in the home, so it was times that we would take him out in public, and he would just scream non stop, and then we'll be embarrassed, or we'll try to punish him. Knowing that this was something like soon as we walk into Walmart, like my son doesn't even go out in public now, but as soon as we walk into Walmart or go around kids or anything, he just starts screaming. And we used to be like you punished because every time we go somewhere you embarrass us. So a lot of times that we're punishing our kids for something they have no help. So it was a lot of sensory issues. We lived in Wisconsin. And it was cold and he would never put on socks. And we found out later that we was making him put on socks, but it felt like needles sticking in his leg because it was a sensory issue. So he didn't want his food to touch. That was a sensory issue. But those things we did not know about because we were forcing him to do things that he just couldn't, you know, his Thinking ability was different.
Pepper: So as you tell him the story, right? So he's the youngest of four. Why would you think that there would be something different? Like just put on your socks and get out of the house.
Because it's cold out there.
Deon: Also routines. When I was trying to bring him to school, they were labeling him as bad and I didn't want that. So that's one of the reasons why I started homeschooling. But when we tried to bring him to school, one day I brought his big brother before I brought him. Normally I bring him first. But this particular day, we were running late, and I think it was testing, so we brought his. He screamed and hollered so bad because I changed the routine and did not know that. A lot of those things I found out on my own, and if I had a place I could teach other parents that didn't have the help, or maybe was diagnosed late in age, because when he was diagnosed, he was too old for some of those programs that they offer for younger kids.
Pepper: And so the only reason, and I hate to ask a stupid question, especially, but the only way you knew was that there was a teacher who was just like, Hey,
Deon: Yeah. Everybody started, the teachers were sending me letters. Oh, he can't go on this field trip alone. Or he did this, or we're going to put him in this class or that, there was diagnosed in this, like he was bad or uncontrollable, but she saw the sign.
Pepper: I'm not even going to talk about how old he was when that happened, how old was he when they got, so that was, and he'd been in school for what, four years.
Deon: Yeah, early diagnosis is better. So at seven, he was too old to get involved in some of the programs that they did have for special needs.
Pepper: Okay so wow, mind blown.
Deon: So before I forget what and then you ask me all the questions. And so part of my organization we said, we teach sensitivity and diversity training. It used to be with police officers anything because when you see my son is six foot 200 some pounds. So every time he walks somewhere when he do go, he plays football or. Stop him and try to arrest him, but I want you to teach how he will take off running and not because he did something because that's what they do.
Pepper: Sure. All right. So we are going to come back to you because I have so many more questions, but now that we got, but now that you've made the transition into interactions with police officers, help me Reverend Anderson fill in some gaps. But yeah, all those years. Fill in some gas for us about justice, adjacency and special needs.
Reverend Anderson: Good morning. And first of all, I just want to give a big old shout out to Miss Hey for all the work she's doing. Most of, I'm in the 19th every single day and last week or the week before it's been a long week. We actually had a mother that was a minor altercation. Her son was 18 years old. He's in high school and he had a meltdown and law enforcement intervened. It is a domestic violence situation. It was a misdemeanor, minor domestic violence situation, which means the overwhelming odds are that case won't even ever get charged. But in the process, this mother stood alone and somebody literally made the suggestion in a courtroom. With no knowledge of background, and Ms.Hey talked about and suggested to this mother that she should put her child into a group home. I would like to tell you that is unusual or an odd experience. Nothing could be further from the truth. 1 of the things Ms. Hey said that was so critical that people need to hear is that there are entry points. But there's also what I like to call connected dot points. If you think about the disparities in health care, particularly for people of color and no, and low wealth communities, you don't get those early diagnoses when you think about how school districts. And particularly the more privatized and the more exclusive those school districts are, but it happens in all of them that simply do not want to do the assessments and so students go undiagnosed in many of these cases. And many of them, I'm also the chair of the Louisiana behavioral advisory council, youth and children. Committee. So these are areas of great concern to us because oftentimes when Children enter these systems in the justice system, they are either diagnosed or they become diagnosed. With many developmental behavior issues, and as Ms. Hey pointed out, when you already have issues around sensory, around light, around other things, interactions with law enforcement are nightmarish on the best of days, and the training is at best minimal. And so when I bring, I want to take this back to the mother that was in court. As many of part of the reason I'm in court every day is I am a court watcher, but I'm also there to make sure our families do not have to stand alone. And 1 of the challenges. Again, is that I'm at something called 1st appearance. That is when people initially get arrested. Within 24 hours, normally, but not always within 24 hours, people are brought before judge on a screen, which means that those who are impacted. With autism and other developmentally disabilities are often in a facility where a, they are isolated in solitary confinement. They are abused, bullied, sometimes sexually assaulted because their behaviors and their responses. Feel inappropriate to people and so instead of them being moved into a system, because there is no system in the justice system. And I think people need to understand that jails are not de facto, mental health facilities, jails are places. We are sticking all the people we don't want to deal with, including our disability communities, including our and sheltered communities, but there are no services. Ms. Hey talked about something that really touches my heart because. Every time I see these cases, it is really a struggle for me. It is the sensory issues. There is probably no one place that is closer to hell for somebody struggling with autism than being in a carceral facility in terms of sometimes the lighting. In terms of sometimes the contact in terms of what you are or are not allowed to have. In lots of these situations, they are particularly at risk. But 1 of the challenges is that for children of color and again, I'm going to speak almost exclusively about children of color for 1 simple reason and our juvenile system is 100 percent African American. It's not anything else. When children who look older than they are, or they appear to be more functional in appearance, interface with people who have no training with most of these situations. It is almost always the default to arrest them. And I think what people don't understand is that as we continue to move towards a policing model, as opposed to an education and engagement and an assessment and. Opportunity model, those are the children who are going to always be most at risk, whether they are in schools, whether they are in summer camps, whether they are in athletic programs, because often, and I love the fact that Miss Hey brought up about her son and the socks. The triggers can be so out of the norm for most people, but in a partial facility, they become disciplinary issues. The idea that you won't wear something, or you won't put something on, or you won't be in compliance, or you won't respond, those get people charges in carceral facilities, and I think people don't understand that, that it is not, on the best of days, a safe place for lots of people who struggle, but it is also a place where, quite frequently, many of the people that we see come through also have medication, And 1 of the struggles that happens a lot of times is that people on medication do not get their medications when they are in carceral facilities. Add to the fact that the environment is already dangerous for them. And now they don't have the medications they need. It is a recipe. For disaster. One of the reasons why we have been pushing so hard for people to truly adopt the 988 model instead of continuing to call 911 is for that very simple reason. 911 will get you some outcomes. We all know what they are. 988, while not a perfect system, we are hoping it will help particularly families like Miss Hey, where her son is lucky because he actually has a diagnosis. But the problem is, if he ever gets stopped on the street, they're not going to ask that and her son is not going to be able to express that. And that is also one of the challenges in both the juvenile system and the adult system is often the very person for whom people are looking for information can't provide it and the people who can provide it. And this is especially true as they age out in age. They're considered to be adult. That is what is nonsense about 17 year olds being adults is crazy land.
Pepper: But wait, look, you're not gonna make me pull out my, you're not going to make me pull out my soapbox about the 17 and older. So before we get back to to autism and the, cause there have been thankfully as I'm listening to these stories, Thankfully, there have been additions of low sensory shopping hours at a lot of places that I've been to, and so I'm thankful for that, but Reverend Anderson, we are going to come back to you and to Ms. Deon but for right now, I want to make sure that we hear from Latosha Mitchell, who is also sitting here in her cox. Thank you all for joining us this morning while y'all are trying to live your life and do something else that doesn't include me. So please let us know who you are, what you do, all about Elevate My Education and how we can be involved in that. Your five minutes starts now. Except for, I can't hear you. I see you're off mute, but I still can't hear you. I know you're talking to me. I know you're trying to say something. Nope.
Helena Williams: The car is taken over. The machine has.
Latosha Mitchell: Okay, sorry. There we go. Okay. Can you guys hear me now?
Pepper: Yes, please. Thank you.
Latosha Mitchell: Can you hear me? Yes. Okay. I'm so sorry. I am in transition from Northside High School. And I just wanted to come in and share a little bit about the aspirations of Elevate My Education. We are a new company that is aspiring to help 16 and up connect to a purpose connect to a pathway to either a career or something sustainable to live a life worth living. As a principal, assistant principal, aspiring principal, I get firsthand dibs on seeing our students talking to families, seeing the need. And I am a unique type of assistant principal. I have a background in special ed, have a unique ability, to make connections with families who have experienced any kind of disabilities, have, have been disenfranchised or, just have had any kind of this devaluing experience in mental health or special needs area as far as language, as far as their interactions. And I wholeheartedly echo everything that happened that I joined in to here. There's no badge that says I'm autistic for our students in society or our parents. I'm a parent of sure there's stickers and things to get people or increase awareness. But as far as what is going on and occurring with these students, the language isn't even there on an educational platform in an educational environment. Our core teachers are often not educated on disabilities of students. There is a definite disconnection in special education as far as education, period. And so I would like to be a voice to bring awareness to that disconnect. And so we can start a better dialogue between parents, students and community on what things we can do to improve how we interact with each other. Because believe it or not. Just like I speak to my core teachers, my faculty, there are students who are gifted and talented who are classified as special needs. It is an array of people involved in special education. And if we are not articulating that, if we are not being visual about that, just like we are teaching our students about different learning styles, right? If our teachers are not equipped to know that there are different learning styles, how are we supposed to empower and equip our students to be successful citizens out here in society? How are we are able to equip an autistic child that is maybe going through distress to communicate with a police officer with no training? I don't know how many stories I've seen of people and families calling for emergencies. I seen a video where a elderly lady has an autistic son. She calls for assistance. Police come for not assistance. They kill this young man in his mother's face. So how are you going to come to grips with that? How does our community come to grips with that? And how many times do we have to repeatedly. Say that there is a problem. There is a disconnect. So I'm very passionate about where I am, my position and what I plan to do. Would elevate my education. Excuse me, y'all. I'm scared on the side of this road. Big trucks driving, but I just wanted to dip my toe in and say, I would love to be a part of any movement to educate people on mental health, on education, the disconnect, the need for family and a village around kids with those conditions, parents with kids with those conditions, teachers that teach kids with those conditions, because just because it's an educational environment. Does not mean everyone in that environment is educated. I appreciate y'all letting me talk. I swear I got to go because I'm so scared. But Miss Tia has my information. Please feel free to email me. Contact me. We are growing and elevate my education. And I greatly appreciate your time. Your time. Thank y'all.
Pepper: Have a great day.
Latosha Mitchell: You too. Bye. Send questions, whatever y'all need. I've just got a whole bunch of them. Please though. I can't hear y'all now. I know y'all probably can hear me, but I can't hear y'all. This car is crazy. Thank y'all.
Pepper: That was a lot. And y'all are just educating me on this fine Friday. Thank you so much because there's so much about this that I didn't have. I am very clear that police are not police officers. And this is not an indictment on them as individuals. This is simply to say that their qualifications are not police. In anything but law enforcement, the their training does not include recognizing cultural diversity or capacity diversity. It is not about them sitting and having big, long conversations. It is really supposed to be deescalating in some ways, but, if they're afraid. Then that may not happen. So the bottom line of the matter is that there are a lot of people, myself included, who don't carry a gun to work, who need to understand what does this look like, right? If I were in, say, a grocery store, Deon, and your son was, I don't know, 12 years old and overstimulated, what sort of behavior. Would you experience as a mother, what kinds of things would have you and your husband all embarrassed trying to figure out how to manage?
Deon: You said if my son was in the grocery store, can you repeat that? I'm sorry.
Pepper: Yeah, you mentioned that he used to act, he would act out in the grocery store because he was overstimulated the sensory was, the It was, he was overstimulated Anyways, what sort of things would occur? Would is it just screaming? Is it just running up and down the aisle? Aisle?
Deon: It was, it would be screaming, no, he wouldn't run down the aisle, but he'll run out, out the store. But one of the things I wanna remember is, you know that Movie Charlie Brown and you know how they was talking and all you hear is, wawawoomp some of those conversations were going on now that he's able to communicate. He lets me know different things, or it could be a shopping cart and the wheel might be twisted, and you know that little noise that it'll click, well to us, we can overlook it, to them, it's a whole lot of stuff going on, so if he didn't have his, he used to walk around with his headphones, or just any little thing that he'll pick up, the lights a lot of people, and one particular, I don't want to keep sharing my incidents. And once I got him to the point that he was able to go to the store, a security guard stopped him and it was a big situation because security guards stopped him saying he was, he big, of course, and he said, Hey, you can't leave out of here with that. And by the time I turned around, I was like, what are you talking about? He said that he was pointing to my son had a colostomy bag at that time. So a lot of that. Pushed me way back for him going out in public because long story short, police officers stopped him, the security guard stopped him thinking that he was stealing something and it was a colostomy bag. So that set a lot of triggers that I finally got him going into the store and now he don't want to go back because of it. So that's another thing that teaches sensitivity and diversity because you can't stop or touch them. Sometimes there's ways to do things. You could have tapped me and say, Hey, can we step in the back so I can ask you something about this young man? Or any of those things.
Pepper: Look, we're gonna have to have a whole conversation. Yeah. Flitcher be, I'm gonna be looking at you like, how are we gonna how are we gonna be changing some of these things? Marcella.
Deon: Even when I was trying to let him go to school. The school bell ringing in the hall sets the trigger. There was at this one particular school, but now that I know it.
Pepper: Sure. In the moment, how would you know? It doesn't seem like any, that I, although, I will agree that whole spinning wheel on the shopping cart is oh, it's horrible, but that's a different conversation for another day. Marcella your hand is up.
Marcella Hernandez: Hi, good morning. How are you today? So I love this conversation because On top of all of the different challenges that Miss Deon is pointing out, I also want to bring into your attention the challenges that our immigrant community faces on top of the challenges that you're already facing. So imagine if you have a child. who don't have health ins had some type of immigrant then this child or even be able to access any type them. And in fact, I'm de right now with a young ad my office and the boys ab he has autism and I had n to refer him. I call every single place and there was not a place that I could refer him. And the only resource I found was only in English. So this family is a Spanish speaking individual. When you bring it into the conversation, all of this challenges that a regular person will face, I just want to bring to your attention the extra challenges that a person either an immigrant or a refugee might face. And also a person like myself, who is a social worker trying to link individuals to resources that are nonexistent, unfortunately, in our community. That is one thing I wanted to mention. And then the other thing that I wanted to mention is pointing out to what Reverend Anderson was mentioning about the law enforcement agents and how that disconnect, who is real mental health training. And additionally, I add up the language access part because you call 911 you as a law enforcement agent to you go to a place and then you face to a situation with a family that you don't know what's happening.
You don't know that person is going through some type of mental health crisis. If this person doesn't speak English, that puts Even a harder way of communicating what the situation is. And this is when we see some of our individuals being incarcerated and they don't even know why they're incarcerated. So I just bring it. I wanted to bring that to your attention since we're having this conversation. And I'm actually dealing with two different cases right now that are specifically, mirroring this whole situation that we're talking about today.
Pepper: No, it makes very good sense, right? Autism doesn't just happen in English, so why would we not have, but if we can't manage resources in the only language that most of us speak why and how would we manage to have them in other languages? But, Ms. Verna, I saw you thinking going up, was you talking to me? What was you just saying? Hi. Reverend Anderson, we're not going to talk about the things that are going to get me all riled up this morning but help me understand because I've never practiced criminal law. It is it's not my thing, but help me understand. You see a young adult so let's just say for the sake of argument, you're somewhere 16, 17, 18, who has been maybe not diagnosed properly or misdiagnosed with something that they don't have and we just grasping at straws and they end up justice adjacent, injustice adjacent, however it is that you want to frame that. What sorts of things can we do to support not only that young person, but also their family?
Reverend Anderson: Thank you for asking that question because it's critical when I mentioned that I'm in court. That is 1 of the 1st steps is that we have to. Help our families understand the system is not friendly and they will have to be the person who speaks for their loved. Now, that can be a challenge because again, when somebody is in the carceral system, oftentimes, because of this disability, they will be put in solitary confinement. So it's a catch 22, which means they won't be able to make a phone call or do anything else. And so oftentimes, what needs to happen is a crisis management plan needs to be put in place. Prior and I know this sounds very frightening and I'm just going to be very honest about it when you have
Pepper: By whom and where does it go? Is this like a birth plan where you carry it around with you? Just in case you go.
Reverend Anderson: Think about what we're taught in Louisiana with disasters. So you have to have a plan when the disaster happens, not if the disaster happens. And so when you have a family member, and again, we are talking about autism, but this can also be Alzheimer's. This could be any number of elements. One of the things you have to do. And while some communities actually have a database that they keep that families can register. I'm not sure I'm particularly fond of that because it feels like sometimes they can be targeted in inappropriate ways. But many times, if you live, for instance, in a smaller community, like a central or Baker or someplace else like that, you can. Get with the responsible players in your community to make sure they're aware that you have a child that has a disability. That's one tool. The second tool is if they are in the Carceral system, you need to reach out to somebody like myself with the coalition, the East Baton Rouge Parish Prison Reform Coalition. One of the reasons we started the Family Support Center, so people would know where we are, but every single day we're in first appearance. If it's in the 19th now, we're not in Baker City Court. We're not in Baton Rouge City Court and we're not in Zachary City Court, which also has cases. But if somebody reaches out to us, there are 3 things we always tell families. One, you need to be in court. You need to be in court. And one of the things that has happened, which is an incredible gift of having been in court, not reading forms not looking at just data is that when families show up, when they provide documentation, the process can change on a dime. I put in the chat. Judges don't come with any of these skill sets either. Prosecutors don't come. They're not trained in any of these things. Public defenders are not trained for the most part in these things. But what they all do, which is the frightening part, is they make decisions in the moment. And so the loved one who is on that screen getting red charges and suddenly seems like they are acting out, Can literally get a contempt charge. The person that is unable to take themselves out of being a ball might not even be brought in because they're considered to be a risk. And so they may be classified as suicidal, all sorts of things. Remember, the people who make the decisions aren't trained in any of these things. So they make decisions in a moment. And so you have. Without a family member literally standing up and saying, I am the mother of I am the guardian of this is the documentation I have. And 1 of the gifts of having been in the court for 5 years is we tell all of our families when they come in.1st of all, we notify all the players. They are there. That didn't used to happen. Like people would be there and nobody would pay attention to well, if you are the mother somebody on the docket, we make sure that all the appropriate players know you're there. But when your loved 1 actually goes on the screen, because you're only on a TV screen, you're not brought into court. We have that family member literally stand up. They don't get to say anything. They just stand up. So that a judge. Acknowledges them once that judge acknowledges them, and they'll say, do you have something about this particular case? That is when that family member, when they have their plan together can make their case. And this is no disrespect to public defenders who are often assigned these cases, but on the best of days, our public defenders are overwhelmed. They haven't met these people. They haven't seen them. People, they don't know anything about these people. The best advocate they're ever going to have. Is the person who loves them and know something about their case. And the reason I emphasize. They need to have documentation is because the criminal justice system is a profit system. And often people will be sent to places where people know nothing about them to do a 5 minute assessment on them. And the assessment isn't to diagnose them. It's to decide whether they're competent to stand trial. If the family member doesn't bring that documentation, they can lose their family member in this system for months in the worst case scenarios. They can be put in for a competency here where they are literally sitting there and there's the clock stops on their case completely and they might end up in Jackson at the forensic hospital. That's the worst case scenario. The worst case scenario is. They might not live through the experience, but that's what happens when nobody intervenes and I'm so proud of Marcel and what Lori does, because 1 of the things by us being in the court is when we have people who do not speak English, Lori has a legal Department. We notify them in real time that those folk are in the system so that they can keep track when we have families and organizations that know from their families and support groups, they're having a lot of interactions with law enforcement. I recommend to them that one, they reach out to groups like mine. And ask us what they should do, because I tell people all the time court packing is an important piece. And what I mean by that is. As much as it's nice for that mom to be able to come to court, most of the moms can't come to court. But if they are in a school. Emerge or something like that, it is entirely possible counselor. Might be able to come to court and speak on behalf of that child or that adult experience. So those are some of the tools in the toolbox. But until we stop treating behavioral health, as it's a criminalized event. Until we really do put in all of these points of entry. And when I say points of entry, what I mean by that is pediatricians obstetricians need to understand so that they are doing the testing. The Medicaid expansion was a big help, but it's not the panacea when children start head start. These testing models need to be in place so that a parent doesn't have to demand when children go to schools. Same thing. Every transition for children who struggle with disability needs to be managed. And as we make choices, and we are budgets are moral documents. You hear me say that all the time as we make choices about whether we want police in schools. Or do we want counselors in schools? That is part of the process. If we're talking about public safety, sometimes we have to talk about prevention, not the person who's going to be if you do something wrong. And a lot of the work that needs to be done on the justice side is actually the work that needs to be done in the community, which is education awareness. And if I can just be very honest about it, that mother I talked about in court. It meant everything. She didn't have to be there by herself. It meant everything that there was somebody else to say to her. The person who said that to you does not have standing. You don't have to make those kind of decisions. Nobody has the right to tell you to put your child, because remember, the court system is a very frightening place on the best of days. And if you've never had that experience, and people just tell you, sign this, sign that, and that happens. Every day in court, people who do not speak English, people who are not literate or asked to sign documents. So advocacy and wraparound services are critical for these families, but nothing substitutes educating the players so that when they do come through the system, they're not making these in the moment decisions.I can't stress that enough.
Pepper: Now, Reverend Anderson, it sounds like you're trying to make this a place that I might actually want to live and thrive, and I'm not having it, just not having it. Marcella?
Reverend Anderson: I live to make you happy, Pepper, so that's not what I do.
Pepper: Marcella?
Marcela: I just want to add to what Reverend Anderson said, is that not only allocating monies and resources to early detection of mental health illnesses and autism and all of these different challenges that our children face, but also once we are able to determine that, what are we going to do? What are we going to refer to them? And instead of us putting so much money into the criminal justice system, incarcerating our people, we literally can allocate those monies into resources and centers that we can, once we detect. Early in an early stage at schools or like pediatricians. We can send our people there and get adequate service. And now the other thing I was going to say is that I agree 100 percent with what Reverend Anderson was mentioning about making sure that our teachers and our our doctors that are pediatricians, everybody is training to this air is into this arena, not only social workers, because if you think about it, As an immigrant mother, I didn't learn anything about autism or ADHD or any type of mental health illnesses growing in my country. That's something we stigmatize within my culture. So I know the things that I know because of my degree, my professional degree, but I've seen it in my community and not only in the Hispanic community, but the other refugee and immigrant community that illnesses like autism, they're oftentimes mistaken by parents. And because we come into this country, we come into this culture. We really have no idea what's happening to our children. And we think it's more like an adaptive Situation and we're like, Oh, no, it's just being really hard. The assimilation process into this culture. And we believe it's just because of the transition coming from our countries, not really because the child hasn't actually mental health illnesses. I resonate with everything Reverend Anderson said, I just wanted to add that little piece.
Pepper: No, and I thank you for it because I think that there is something that Deon was saying that her son wasn't diagnosed until seven. So even when you talk about kids who have not autism, if you're going through these formative years, there could be many reasons. That children act out, or they scream, or they behave in ways that we, because every child is different, even if it's the last of four that they that you overlook, or you can explain away a lot of things, right? And then, by the time you do figure out that this is not a behavior that I should have been explaining away, it's a little late. Because there are some, foundational measures that you could have put in place, but not necessarily have you been able to do or have you done so. I will also there are, I have never seen so many resources popping up in this chat.
Casey: I was literally about to say the same thing. Wow, man, what incredible input from not only the speakers and I want to thank everybody who has spoken today and all that space. But wow, y'all crush the the chat. And I really feel like we need to aggregate these resources and actually lift them up during the next education to career coalition because I would argue that you could, you can look at continuous learning and the workforce group. And how to such as the literacy group and the using school this hub and especially early childhood. I doubt that there is as much of a consolidated amount of resources as possible. And I just also wanted to just say that there's another need that I feel like this community could really do is like, when you think about the individuals from the the mark I want to make sure and say it right. Ms. Verna put it in there, Margaret Rose Foundation. And you look at Miss Deon, doing work on their own, right? Bringing all those people together and actually supporting them. And the Wilson Foundation has done a really great job. With Magnolia Rose Foundation. But, connecting all these warriors who are motivated by lived experience to be able to bring resources around them, but also to listen to set individuals that have lived experience who are on the front lines doing the work on how to inform the systems changes, how to inform the investments into this work. There are groups like the Emerge Center that are heavily financed. And they do amazing work in the community, and that is facts, but there is a lot of grassroots organizations doing this work that are under resourced and left out on an island. And, last but not least, I always have to lift up the incredible model that is based out of Dallas,Texas called My Possibilities. It is by far, leaps and bounds ahead of the arc of the future. And what they are doing with this building, a campus where individuals can live there and families can have houses on the properties, right? It's a massive real estate redevelopment, but there's a college campus for humans of all ranges of abilities on the campus. There are retail stores that employ. Boy said individuals getting trained on the campus and there is a place for people to live their entire lives because one of the things that I have learned in this work and I'm thankful that I have learned this perspective is humans that are parents or guardians of humans with really challenging disabilities. Their biggest fear is what happens if they pass away. Yeah, they're gone, right? And we, I don't know about y'all, but I don't think anybody on this call has confidence in the state to take care of people who have individualized needs, especially from historically disinvested and oppressed oppressed, right? And it's so the need to gather people together, surround people and resources on the ground level to create a local solution is incredibly important for the future of the city. And thank you for the space. Thank you, Pepper. Reverend Anderson.
Reverend Anderson: Yeah, I wanted to add something that is so critical that I hear from families all the time. In our community, and Marcella brought it up as well, in our communities, oftentimes, families are ostracized and having a child with a disability is often a breakup of relationships of marriages. It's just hard. And a lot of times there isn't a great net to support those families and even the most modest of means. And so what Ms. Hey said, isn't that unusual families often have to make the decision. Somebody's got to stay home with this child. Somebody's got to monitor the education, whether or not they have the skill sets for it or not.Because. That child gets put out of school, that things happen. And so one of the things I don't want us to leave out is families need support centers and support groups on the ground that feel and look like their communities. Sometimes as well meaning as some of these groups are the conversations don't talk about transportation. They don't talk about subpar education. They don't talk about family disengagement in a way that relates to particular cultures. And I know it's gonna sound like, good Lord, Reverend, what else do you sit on? But these all have dots. The child mortality review panel 1 of the things that we talk about all the time is that while education is important, if it's not culturally appropriate, if it does not reach the real influencers in many families, it isn't valid. And so I don't want to leave out that. I do something called beyond missionary, which is to try to engage faith based organizations in these kind of conversations, because oftentimes people leave the various systems that they thought were their supports. Because they don't fit anymore. So their child's not wanted in the young people's department because they have needs that the things that used to be their support system isn't there anymore. And so now, not only are they haven't to spend their life advocating, they have to spend a large amount of money sometimes. And I did want to make this point. You have people that this isn't the only thing they have. It's co occurring, so it could also be that they have other issues going on and everything from dietary restrictions, et cetera. And so when we talk about how we meet the needs of families as close to where they are. And sometimes it may mean thinking differently about what we do in faith based organizations to support families in a community. It may be different what we think differently about, for instance, the child who's not comfortable getting on a bus. But mom doesn't have a car. How are we going to get them to any kind of treatment to make sure that the very parents who need to be in advocacy seats have a way to be on those seats? Because what Miss Hey said is very valid. A lot of organizations mean but they are quite frankly, very white toast. They don't have any poor people on their advisory committees. They don't have any people who are non English speakers in their policy groups. They don't hear those voices. So they're not trying to be exclusionary, but de facto they are. And that is a very real need for families, and particularly justice impacted families, because the minute that child or adult enters the justice system, and we don't talk about this a lot, that very arrest will sometimes make them unhousable, make the family suddenly unhousable. We have this exact same issue with domestic violence that families often get evicted because of domestic violence. And the landlord is just done the police have been here too many times that kind of thing. Being able to get educations, because they are put in the disciplinary system, instead of having responsible IEP systems. A lot of times the very touching of the justice system actually limits. The wraparound services that they can get, and I think it's very important that we know that we have to have as much grassroots and as much providing services at the point where families need it. I thought what this was so powerful about that. I had to keep creating things because they just weren't there, or they weren't there for me. And that triples when you are justice impacted.
Pepper: All right, we are going to let Deon have the last word and share with us anything it is that we need to take away from this moment. Then we'll do community announcements and we'll hop back into it. If anybody wants to stay for overtime. Deon, the floor is yours.
Deon: Man, I just loved everything that she said and recognizing that's refreshing because not many recognize that one of the things I wanted to say when Deontay was first diagnosed that I had family and friends saying, Oh, don't let them people give your child a label. And that's what we do, instead of us helping where our kids needed, we just go ahead and listen to what everybody else said. Oh, he don't look autistic or he this, they say that a lot about my son. But they never knew you see him in moments. I live with him. Also I want to touch on. I know that you guys posted a lot of resources and some of those I have tried some of those resources and what we have to be mindful of is they have waiting lists. Some of them charge like I know somebody mentioned, Oh, Hope school or this school. They charge a tuition and everybody can't. Yeah, you can get help. Or sometimes they give sponsorship, A couple of months down the line, but what are the, what happens with the parents that need help at that moment right now? We can't wait for a waiting list. We need help now. And some of those research I know wraparound was good. I tried that in home therapy with my son. It just didn't work for him because a lot of the therapists that come to the house. They aren't prepared with dealing with someone with autism. That's like my son's autism is different, right? Like he's very now he's very verbal. He'll say get the hell away from me or any words, you know At one time he did a lot of cuss words or different things like that And that's what some of them do to express theirself or when it's something against their routine or new Some of conversations they will be having with him You like autistic kids, they'll come and he said, Mom, why would the lady said that I'm causing harm to you? They take things literally and it'll sit on his brain for a long time. Or you like, Hey, dear. Why would they call me a four legged animal? That she don't mean that so they take a lot of terms or words being used around him. Literally, you don't think that he's paying attention, but he'll repeat your whole conversation. Maybe a year later So we just have to facial reaction. He's very big on facial. He's she has an angry face So she's looking at me mean they read off for all of that So even though you experience or you may have a lot of degrees and you come into the house doing this You They won't take well what you're not, what some of the faces you make, some of the conversations and statements that you make. So I want people to keep that in mind. Oh, there's so many things. Any questions? Let me see that.
Pepper: I don't have any questions, but Tia's got her hand up.
Deon: Tia, I see a lot of resources that you did, and I like a lot of those. I've seen your name.
Tia Fields: I appreciate you taking time to make mention that some of these programs that I did list are they do have a cost with it. Speaking, taking off my it's still community coordination. served as an ABA therapist for a little over six years. I graduate with a background in psychology focusing in behavior analysts analysis. So what you're saying as far as like when the therapists are coming to the homes, you're right, you're absolutely right. Some of them are not trained enough to take the time to build the rapport to learn the family. And one thing I do want to lift up is that there is a vast amount of, Organizations that do offer help, but I would like to see more community based like your organization, Step Up for Autism. I've been following you for a little over four years, and I have seen the things that you have done in the community, and I have had clients of my own attend to some of those events and seeing the impact, just being able. Some type of normalcy. And it's important that we know we bridged that gap. I just wanted to ask, is there anything from this organization and those partners on the call that we can do to support Steppin 4 autism? And if there's any event that you would like coordination with.
Deon: Anything I'm a one man show. I try to get all this stuff done while I have my sons and family that help, but it's usually just me. So any way that. You guys can, we can do something together. We can, I'm really trying to build a safe space that parents like me can come. We can meet, I can get the kids. I can even, you need a break for an hour. You can drop your kid in this no charge. For our you can drop your kids off. Maybe I'll help with the homework may prepare them. What depends on what age teach them how to cook just a lot of services. I would like to offer hands on that. I didn't have. We can connect and not saying wraparound service weren't good. I just didn't get consistency because the therapist. We're not like they may change therapist every other week. So how is that helping us? If it wasn't consistent, but I did enjoy wrap around. He aged out of some of the services that had, but I, and all the time, I think we did it maybe five years. He had two in those five years that were consistent with respite and every I signed up for everything you can name. Once the waiting list of went through, so I want to be more hands on. If you call me, you can imagine my inbox and my every time a parent called me or inbox me, I take that time at that moment and be supportive to them. So I won't put them on a waiting list. We don't have to wait to get this. I like to start action right now and that's what I want to do.
Pepper: That's what I'm talking about. I want to start action right now. So we are going to come back to overtime in just a second. I want to give space after saying thank you so much to our speakers this morning. I want to give space to those who, I don't know, might have a job to go to to get to community announcements before y'all have to go. Thank you, Tia. So what's going on this weekend? Ah, now you want to talk to me, Ms. Verna. Ms. Verna, what you got going on this weekend?
Verna: I'm gonna let my sidekick talk, okay? I love it. One Touch Ministry is going to be offering a class on the process for applying for a TWIC card for those who have criminal backgrounds. It's going to be at the main library on Wednesday, May 8th. Starting at 10 o'clock in the morning we think we have lined up some financial assistance with the application fee. So if you have folks who need to be able to work in the plants or the ports and have to have a TWIC card, they can come and learn the process. We'll have some TSA folks there as well. We'll be able to answer the hard questions. so much.
Pepper: Like why they disturb my travel every day. I travel and that's what I want. That's all I'm asking. Carry on. Reverend Anderson.
Reverend Anderson: Pepper. So April is a lot of months. April is second chance, month. What I would tell everybody is that while April will be ending, every day is an opportunity. To offer somebody a chance, whether it is rent, whether it is a job, whether it is a training opportunity, it is also sexual assault awareness month. That is a big deal, especially given some things that are going on right now. April is also Alzheimer's awareness month. And some of you may have noticed that last night, the Capitol was lit up in purple. And there was a proclamation doing that. The East Baton Rouge Parish Prison Reform Coalition had the fun of having an art exhibit in the Eden Park Library, and it is running the entire month of April. So I'm inviting everybody, if you haven't had a chance to go over and see our tales from the court. It is a visual display. The highlights of the last 5 years of changing what is happening in the court. Very quickly, it's on Monday, April the 29th is the Scotland deal food access coalition's grocery store town hall meeting. I think that's being put on by councilwoman Banks. And there is also a health fair the Hollywood church of Christ is having a health fair this weekend. And the Capital Area Recycling Corporation is hosting an Earth Day event. And I apologize, I'll try to find the flyer and put it into the chat.
Pepper: Very good, Marcela.
Marcela: All right. First of all, I wanted to say thank you. Huge thank you. Gracias. Merci. To all of our partners and allies who came and supported us this week. At the legislative session we had some wins, we had some, not wins we had some losses, but we, most importantly, we had our community standing up for us, our partners standing up for us, and I just want to say thank you. Thank you for taking the time to write an email in opposition or an email in supporting. Thank you for sending a letter. Thank you for coming and putting red cards or green cards. Thank you for taking a, Second of out of your busy schedule and walk with us and fight with us despite we feel the love from you. And I can just say thank you thank you to all of you. This week was just amazing, seeing a lot of you guys faces and feeling that sense of solidarity and love towards us. I also wanted to say what refugee and immigrant day is coming up if you have not registered, I am putting the registration link in the chat. For those who don't know what the World Refugee and Immigrant Day is the World Refugee and Immigrant Day is a day where we celebrate our uniqueness the great contributions of immigrants and refugees in the state of Louisiana. We come together and we celebrate. Celebrate very proud of who we are. We talk about the great contributions, social and economic growth and it's a way to showcase the beauty of our diversity and our rich cultures. So if you have not registered, please do we might be a, we might have to close up the registration because we got too many people registering. This is going to be on June 22nd at 2 p.m. at the river center. This year we're going huge. So if you have not registered, make sure you take the time and register the link is in the chat, and I'm about to put a flyer as well. So you can share it with your friends and your families. And the last thing I wanted to say is I'm in the early stages of organizing our summer enrichment camp. I just wanted to remind you last year we had 45 kids from 13 different nationalities and this year I'm looking for support from our partners. If you have an extra token that you want to give out, if you want to give a donation to an organization that works as hard as we are, We're looking for sponsorships for our children's field trips, our t shirt, our t shirts, our supplies. If you're interested in donating you can also go to our website and donate through our website for our summer camp. Thank you so much. You have a wonderful day.
Pepper: Thank you. Helena.
Helena Williams: Yeah. First I just want to thank the call coming from a family who has a lot of people who have autism and ADHD. This was a really impactful call. But moving on community announcements. I am hosting a JoltCon this Saturday at TT Allain Lane and Southern University. JoltCon is a youth empowerment conference that happens every semester. This is our part two where we have the pitch competition where kids can win 500 cash prize for their best business pitch, as well as we have an LLC registration training class happening where they walk out with an LLC business registered at the end of it. And we have some guest speakers, including Pat McAllister Leduff's Posh Pop Girls and Zane Clayton, who runs the Meltdown Snow Cone Stand, who is a teenager with a bunch of businesses. So I'm very excited. Registrations are still open, but we're pretty full. So yeah, that's it. Thanks.
Pepper: Thank you much. OneTouch Ministry.
One Touch Ministry: Yes. OneTouch Ministry will be holding a program called Hope. I would think it's overcoming barriers within it will be held today, which is April the 26th. We'll be right here at the Ministry 1717 Dallas Drive. This is for guys who have been previously incarcerated. So if you know anybody who's dealing with barriers within, send them our way. We'd be glad to have them starting at 5 p.m. today. Phone number if you have any questions, our phone number is 225-395-359.
Dauda: I would just reemphasize what I just mentioned and said a big thank you to each and every one of you and to all the embrace love champions that embrace love with us as our community been attacking various angles. However, we know that we have a bigger community. And together we all are building our bigger we and how we can resist the resistance on the other side that are against progress and diversity. We're making strides to continue to see how we can unify our community and bring love. And that is the reason why the Red Stick Unification Cup, basically the Battle Royale Unification Cup. The tournament is ongoing. It's a World Cup style. And then this weekend, the last of the the quarterfinal is playing between France versus Vietnam at the ball bank field. Just come and have fun, celebrate diversity today at tomorrow at 7:30 in the evening. That's when the game will start, but from 6 30 will be there till getting until the start of the game. So there's gonna be snacks and music and then also And humanity as well. So don't miss that out and I know Marcela mentioned that you have to register for resource table because we'll be closing However, another registration as well is it's a global event, which means the american culture is more than welcome You were here. You have a nice performance team. That's the crew or whatever local Louisiana performance that you know that you want to bring to add to the menu. Please register as a performance. We will do that. Definitely love to have that performance as well. We want to exceed this year being that we're going big to make sure that we have more performance in a global scale. Because last year we have about 13 performance and this year we want to Get above 20. So if there are any Louisiana cultural performance group, and you want a connected hostel, let us know. So that's all. Thank you to the one rouge family. This is one of the most hour and a half that I spend in a week in the city of battle would be in a community reach each and every one of you.
Pepper: Thank you. Nichola, you got on your fancy glasses, but also the mute is on.
Nichola: You're right. The glasses are different. I like them. Thank you. And you can't even see right. It says Dr. Hall, but you know what? That's a different conversation. So good morning everyone. Happy Friday. I am always in high spirits and always hopeful. So I want to give a major shout out to Dina Johnson. I don't know who you are, but I absolutely love you for dropping that Spring Fling flyer in the chat. Cause that's what I was about to talk about. All right. So once again, tomorrow Spring Fling, share out the flyers flyer as much as possible. We will be in the house at JTA 9 a. m. to 1 p. m. You got a degree. You don't have a degree. We will find a space for you and provide technical support. We will also have a fitness instructor online on site to come, for workout. Bring your gym gear. I'll be working out with y'all too. Smoothies and the whole enchilada, right? It's not just recruitment, but it's also retention. So once again, spread the love, spread the attention, share out the flyer. Come on down and join us tomorrow. Love and appreciate one Rouge and pepper.
Pepper: As always my y'all, how much I enjoy you spending your Fridays with me. We are coming up real close to 10 a.m. I'm going to leave the checks. The zoom open for another 5 to 10 minutes. Thank you for being here. For those of you who do have to get back to your day, we'll see you back here next Friday. Same bat time, same bat channel. Marcela, what, like, how much is your camp? What does it cost for your kids to attend?
Marcela: It's free. That's why we're asking for sponsors.
Pepper: How much money are you trying to raise in sponsorships?
Marcela: Oh whatever your heart wants to give us.
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