Autism Safety 101 held at Jackson State
JACKSON, Tenn. – A program at Jackson State Community College is aimed at bridging the gap between law enforcement and negative interactions with neuro-diverse people.
Autism 101 was held at Jackson State Tuesday to help first responders recognize signs of autism in individuals and prevent unfortunate situations.
“The last thing we want to see is a video being made of a police officer using excessive force in a situation that he could have been trained on,” said Tommy Cepparulo, a former law enforcement officer and current Assistant Professor of Criminal Justice at Jackson State.
He is passionate about providing local and area law enforcement with educational opportunities like this to keep everyone safe.
“We want to give them the most precise, up-to-date training they can have so they can take it into the workforce,” Cepparulo said.
The program focuses on in-depth ways to identify autistic individuals as well as strategies for successful outcomes.
“We want to educate them on how to interact with them and understand that autism is a real deal and that we as a faculty, our criminal justice program here at Jackson State, that we care to give this back to the public,” Cepparulo said.
Project President Bart Barta, a retired law enforcement commander with over 30 years of experience, has a son who was diagnosed with autism at age three.
He recognized early on in his career that law enforcement officers were not provided with appropriate tools to respond to individuals with autism.
“You might think this person is under the influence of drugs or they might have serious mental health issues,” Barta said.
Another main focus of the training class was addressing how to handle and respond to calls involving individuals with autism who are reported missing.
Barta says law enforcement must understand the importance of trying to make a recovery of that individual as quickly as possible.
This course was made possible through a grant that funds training programs for mental illness.
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