Unfortunately, our existing caseload at Mayerson & Associates demonstrates that the security-lapse situation that Avonte confronted in his school building hardly was an anomaly. Incredibly, in the past two years, we have encountered at least four serious security lapse scenarios.
By way of example, months before Avonte went missing, we brought an impartial hearing on behalf of one of our other client families. The claims that we asserted in this other matter included a claim that the child’s mother had rejected the NYCDOE’s offered school placement because her son had a history of wandering and would be unsafe in a building with unguarded and unalarmed side doors i.e. the very same situation that allowed Avonte to walk out of his school building. Ironically, the NYCDOE’s offered school placement was located just blocks from Avonte’s school. This other family prevailed at their impartial hearing, and that win is now being appealed by the NYCDOE.
We are hopeful that schools Chancellor Carmen Fariña will collaborate with Police Commissioner Bratton to (a) identify and remediate the numerous security lapses that allowed a non-verbal teenager with autism to walk out of his public school and (b) provide the ongoing staff training that is essential to prevent the next elopement disaster. We also vigorously support the passage of “Avonte’s Law,” a legislative initiative being introduced by Senator Chuck Schumer and supported by Autism Speaks that, on a strictly voluntary basis, would fund the provision of GPS tracking technology for affected families.