HIALEAH, Fla. — There’s a new emergency alert system that can help parents of children with autism across the state.
It’s called Spectrum Alert, and it’s designed to help locate missing children with autism.
Florida leaders officially announced it Friday.
“For me, the Spectrum Alert is going to save lives,” SFACS Principal Tammie Moodie, who came up with the idea, said. “The idea that when a first responder gets that phone call -- ‘my son is missing’ -- and the parents say, ‘My son has autism,’ the alert is going to go out and it’ll say ‘Spectrum Alert.’”
As the principal at SFACS, Moodie knew Spectrum Alert was needed.
This system will let officers know that the child is on the spectrum and they will look for the missing child differently.
“They are going to know that our kids sometimes can have some behaviors, because I’m lost, I’m new -- a lot of our kids love to elope – it’s one of those things they just love to do and they love water because of sensory reasons,” Moodie explained.
It’s just some of the clues officers will have that will make them look more effectively for some of these kids that we have gotten flyers for who have gone missing and who have autism.
Moodie decided to reach out to Florida State Sen. Bryan Avila, (R), about Spectrum Alert.
“(I asked,) ‘Do you think we can get this to pass?’ And he was like, ‘This is a great idea!’ And much to my surprise, I got a phone call a week later saying it was drafted,” Moodie said.
The bill has now officially been approved by the Florida Senate.
Now the next step is to get even more first responders trained in this new system.
But Moodie says parents have to also do their part when calling 911 for help.
“You want to let them know (your) child has autism, whether he is verbal, non-verbal, whether he uses sign language or he uses a picture communication system to communicate -- you want to make sure you say that,” Moodie said.
Also remember to let them know if your child knows how to swim.
“It’s important that emergency responders know what to do, because very easily they can do the wrong thing, not meaning to, but just because they don’t know any better,” Director of Operations and HR Susan Leon said.
Moodie says statistics show the leading cause of death in South Florida is drowning, and 56 percent of those deaths are children with autism.
“We know what the statistics are,” Avila said. “The last thing that any parent wants to be a part of, or wants to be, or wants to experience is to become another statistic.”
State Rep. Daryl Campbell, (D), explained how the Spectrum Alert works.
“It is pretty much similar to the Amber Alert,” he said. “Just as you get a text, this one now is a special alert. You will get a notification if a child on the spectrum is missing.”
Hialeah Police Chief George Fuente says his officers are getting specific training to know what to do when that Spectrum Alert goes off.
“We have a great relationship with Dr. Moodie in order to teach our officers what to look for, how to handle individuals with autism, because we know that our first responders are the first line, the first ones approaching these individuals, so we want to make sure they approach them in a safe manner,” he said.
Now that the system is up and running here in Florida, the bigger goal is to also have the Spectrum Alert throughout the entire country, and for first responders in all 50 states to also be trained on quickly and effectively looking for people with autism when they go missing.
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