Why First Responder Autism Training?

From the perspective of someone with autism, there are moments that are confusing, hard to process, and difficult to understand. What happens when parents, family, or friends are not around to make sense of the confusion or de-escalate a situation? Today’s Champions’ goal is to provide specific autism training to first responders, security personnel, teachers, and other influential members in the community.

Here’s Our Story

On August 7th, 2016, our son, Ben William Hodgin lost his best friend: multi-time championship-winning race car driver, Bryan Clauson. This racing accident occurred at The Belleville Midget Nationals in Belleville, KS. We were at the race with Bryan and his family. 

In the moment that the horrific accident occurred, our immediate response was to run to the track and to help Bryan in any way we possibly could. Meanwhile, Ben William was immediately highly escalated and emotionally charged with concern for Bryan. In the midst of running stride for stride with us to the track, Ben William was stopped at the entrance to the track by a Security Officer for the Belleville Speedway. 

The officer ordered him to stop and return to his seat because this was an emergency situation. Ben William, already being in an escalated state, responded very loudly and aggressively stating… “that’s my best friend!”

The officer put his hand on Ben William’s shoulder and told him he could not come through the gate and that he must return to his seat immediately. Ben William responded, “Let me go!” This escalated the situation even more because Ben William felt threatened, and in this state, he could not understand why the officer would not let him go to be with Bryan.

Ben William was now in tears and yelling loudly at the officer. The officer turned to us, recognizing we were with him, and he stated, ”if you don’t control him, I will put him in cuffs!” Thank goodness (someone recognized we were with the Clauson family) and came to the officer at that moment! They said, “let them go, they are with the family!” Had this not happened, who knows how differently the night could have been for Ben William and our family.

It was this experience that led us to our commitment of providing First Responder Autism Training to our frontline heroes.

On August 7th, 2016, and the difficult days, weeks, months and years that followed it, we’ve determined that first responder training could be incredibly impactful, and that it should be one of our core initiatives rooted within Today’s Champions. It’s important to us to help increase awareness, understanding and education around communication tactics and strategies when engaging with an individual with autism during an emergency situation.

After working towards this goal since Today’s Champions beginnings in 2018, we’re excited to partner with the Autism Society of Indiana (ASI), and are in the midst of pursuing our goal of providing Training and Communication Boards to every state trooper, sheriff’s department, police and fire department in the state of Indiana.

To date, we have have provided over 7,000 Communication Boards and First Responder Training sessions to over 30 of the 92 counties in Indiana. 

The Autism Society of America has noticed and encouraged our efforts with this partnership. We are working on assisting with piloting a national version of our First Responder’s Training program by early 2023.