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Westborough drowning victim was severely autistic

Boy, 4, had been seen walking alone before, police chief told

By Brian R. Ballou

 |  Globe Staff  

  May 15, 2012

A severly autistic Westborough boy who drowned in a murky pool at his apartment complex Sunday had been seen in the past walking alone around the spacious facility, authorities said. “We were told by maintenance crews at the complex that this child had been on his own wandering around before,’’ said Alan Gordon, Westborough Police Chief, in a telephone interview Monday.

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According to CDC's latest reports, autism now effect 1 in 88 American children and 1 in 54 American boys. Autism effects all of us. Every community in the country has a population of children with autism. Dr. Geri Dawson, chief science officer at Autism Speaks calls autism an "epidemic" and a public "health crisis". Her exact words. It is very important that police, fire and rescue personnel are aware that wandering is a behavior common to children with autism and that children with autism are often drawn to water. My 8 year old son has autism and, when he was younger, he used to bolt from the house. Even when I locked all the doors, he pushed out a window pane and sqeezed out and took off down the street. I think police need to understand that bolting and wandering, also known as elopement, is common among children with autism. Wandering is among the many challenging behaviors related to children with autism. Children with autism are very impulsive and they can wander away in a split second. They are also drawn to the water. Drownings have happened before in fact, children with autism are at high risk for drowning. There is an excellent web site called AWAARE.org. AWAARE stands for: Autism Wandering Awareness Alert Response Education (AWAARE). The web site is dedicated to wandering among children with autim and tips for parents, teachers, safety personnel and members of the community on ways to keep make them safe. With so many children now effected with autism in the US, public awareness about wandering is key.

Heartbreaking situation all around. My curiosity is about access to the pool. That fence should have been impenetrable (short of climbing the links) to a 4 year old regardless of his "drive". I only know what I saw on the news but the fencing appears to lack a bottom horizontal bar unless it was buried in the mulch. If that was the case, it wouldn't have taken much effort to crawl underneath. Also, on the often-repeated shot of the door with the chain lock, there is at lest one cleanly cut sprial wire. I'm not sure if there is any blame to be spread but the pool-fence regulations we have in our town are brutal. Now I think I have a better understanding as to why that is.

Excellent post Tsmom. Well said.