As Autism Awareness Month comes to an end, Evangeline Parish Sheriff Charles Guillory said he's just getting started with a new initiative.
Guillory launched a new, Autism Awareness program, providing free resources like decals and identification cards to anyone with the developmental disorder.
"I want everybody to understand when they do go a house and whenever somebody comes in we're going to log into our computers their address and that they do have an autistic person living in that household," Guillory said. "So that way, the officer is automatically going to know, he'll see it our system that says 'Hey, there's an autistic person, whether it's a child or an adult."
Guillory is partering with Joshua Pommier, a Clinical Director for Beyond The Curve Pediatrics, a board-certified behavioral analysis center, to train his officers.
Pommier said while awareness is one thing, identifying the characteristics of the disorder is another.
"Every, single child that we work with and we work with a lot and I have worked with hundreds over the years, every, single one of them is different," Pommier said. "They all have that autism diagnosis, but they do not have a lot of the same characteristics."
I reached out to Christian LaFleur, a Registered Line Technician for Beyond The Curve Pediatrics in Ville Platte. She told me she's passionate about working with children on the spectrum and helping them with their sensory skills.
"It's so much fun," LaFleur said. "We have so many kids with so many different personalities and they're so different from each other and they all have their own big, personality."
Guillory, Pommier and LaFleur are all working to provide Autism-related resources to the Evangeline Parish community.
Now, anyone interested in an identification card and/or decal for their home or car can visit EPSO during business hours (8 AM to 4 PM ET.)
Guillory said the decal is simple.
"It's a peel and stick," Guillory said. "Let's say they have a storm door, before they get to their wooden door, they can place it there... Of course bring Autistic, it is a little bit different than other people and that's why they have to be treated differently."
