OGDEN — Stacy Bernal started a nonprofit to try and help families much like her own. Her 19-year-old son, Haiden McCaig, has autism.
“We’ve navigated special education,” Bernal explained. “We’ve navigated every single alphabet soup of IEPs (Individualized Education Programs) and working to get him on the waitlist for DSP, which is the division of services for people with disabilities.”
Out of those frustrations, Bernal founded Awesome Autistic Ogden as a driving foundation behind annual autism awareness walks along the Ogden Parkway. Now, she’s working with police to help families share information with first responders that may protect or even save the lives of their loved ones with disabilities.
“They don’t want to come into a situation that could end badly for a family,” Bernal said.
Ogden Police Department is among several agencies in Utah that offer an opt-in registry that will alert first responders to autism or other disabilities when they are sent to a registered household.
While not entirely new, Bernal recently put out a reminder to families in light of the recent shooting of 17-year-old Victor Perez in front of his Pocatello home earlier this month. Perez was shot nine times by officers after a neighbor called and said he appeared to be very drunk. Perez had autism and cerebral palsy and was holding a knife at the time of the shooting. He ended up in a coma and was later taken off of life support.
“That’s one of my greatest fears,” Bernal said. “And so many other families that I talked to who have kids with disabilities, not necessarily specifically autism, but they are worried about potential interaction with law enforcement because it could be miscommunicated.”
Ogden Police Lt. William Farr said the registry has helped first responders show up at emergencies better informed and prepared.
“It helps immensely,” Farr said. “Our officers are able to look at it and see that this is an individual who might be on the spectrum and what level they are.”
The voluntary registry in Ogden was created in 2022 as several cities did the same in response to the officer-involved shooting of then 13-year-old Linden Cameron in Salt Lake City. Cameron’s mother had called 911, asking for help to get him to a hospital. Instead, he was shot multiple times when he didn’t respond to an officer’s commands in 2020. Cameron survived but was badly injured.
“I remember … seeing that and just being really shaken up,” Bernal said. “And I am fortunate that my son is verbal. I’ve talked to him about if law enforcement ever approaches him like I need the first thing he says is ‘I’m autistic.’ Like hopefully that is a way that he can protect himself should something go sideways.”
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