A personal request from Sheila and Kenneth Medlam
Sheila Medlam has taken her fight to the Internet to collect enough signatures and support to send the Mason Alert petition to lawmakers to promote a national registry for individuals with special needs.
PLEASE SIGN AND PASS ALONG:
Mason Allen Medlam Foundation [You can add your signature by clicking on the link]
The family hopes to collect enough signatures and support this petition to send the Mason Alert registry to lawmakers to get a bill passed similar to the Amber Alert and Silver Alert programs. Mason Alert would provide a national registry for all families that have special needs individuals in their care.
You have to know where to look for them,” Sheila said. “And if police had that info, they would have known right where to look for my son.” Sheila says the “Mason Alert” would give authorities crucial information the minute a call comes in regarding a missing special needs child.
Here is the letter:
I want to thank everyone for pushing for signatures. This alert is very important to me and every other parent that has an autistic child.
We need to educate the public about autism. It is just such a hard thing for anyone to comprehend if they don’t live with it. Parents with “normal” children just can’t comprehend how a little child can defeat five locks on the doors with six people watching. They don’t understand how a disabled child can manage to elude multiple safety precautions, but as parents of autistic children, we all understand.
We had three locks on every door, and the one question that you heard every few minutes was “Where’s Mason?”. It only took one second and a cracked window for us to lose our son, and I truly believe that if the Mason Alert had been in effect, Mason would be here today.
The police responded, but they didn’t know the right way to look for my son. When I arrived, they were walking around calling his name. No one was at the pond, although I had asked 911 to send someone there.
Mason was non verbal and would never have responded to his name being yelled out. He was attracted to water and knew the pond was there. When I arrived at the pond and pulled him from the water, his little body was still pink. He hadn’t been drowned for long. If the police had gone there from the beginning…. well, I wouldn’t be here today pushing for this Alert. I would be holding my son thinking all was right in the world.
We are hoping through the Mason Allen Medlam foundation to get the Mason Alert in place, raise enough money to build a safe playground area for special needs children, and also raise money to provide safety latches, locks and GPS locators for those who can’t afford them. Please help pass this site around so we can collect all the signatures we need. We are relying on you for your assistance.
Kenneth and Sheila Medlam
Absolutely, this needs to be put in place!!! So many Autistic children and Special Needs children it seems…
Terrific idea.
Give them all the help they need.
They need to do something for our kids besides what they are already doing, a special alert is a good idea, because the non-verbal childeren like my son having Austim they don’t answer back when you call them.. So please help us parents that have Special Needs Childeren .. Please
sounds good to me
Hope I make a difference!
The right words fail me. I am so sorry for this family’s loss. I support the Mason Alert. Perhaps this family’s tragic loss can help other families protect and safeguard those they love.
Anything I can do to help these little guys and dolls…..
Anything I can do to help these little guys and dolls…….
sorry to hear of your loss, from another parent that has also lost a child under different circumstances though, l understand your pain and my thoughts are with you and your family. I pray that with the signatures that you get that something will be made available to assist all families with a child on the spectrum….
I have a son with Down syndrome who has “gotten away” I think this is a very important peice of legistation.
gps would be great help .. i hope this gets passed
As the mother of a brilliant daughter with autism, I support your efforts and am so sorry for your loss. We live in fear all the time of our daughter doing something that will endanger her life. Every time we hear of the loss of a child with autism, it sends a chill down my spine and my heart skips a beat.
This is necessary for our vulnerable children and adults with disabilities who may wander from home.
I agree!
This is so important.I hope they will listen to us,and get this in place for out children
My heart goes out to this family. I have 2 sons with Autism and know that sometimes no matter how much someone is watching and paying attention to them they are like little Houdini’s and just disappear. I think this petition should be signed and passed along. I would like to also post it on my blog with permission of course. In the state of New Jersey they have a system in play to register your autistic children with local fire, and police departments so that they know ahead of time about our children and how to handle them. I wanted to know if any other states have this?
I hope you get what you need, i have a sun with lots of prombles but he can talk, so in that way i’m lucky. God bless
Our own autistic son turned five this July 27th. We are so sorry for your loss! This legislation is so needed! We live near a large body of water and the fear of our son wandering is always at the back of my mind. We had to erect a four foot chain link fence all around our house in order to keep him from running into the street and being hit by one of the cars that always drives too fast down our street. The city would not help us. Thank you for allowing something so tragic to spur you into action for my child and so very many others like him.
God bless you!
signed
I have a four 1/2 year old non-verbal autistic son who requires constant supervision. After reading your story and seeing pictures Mason, my heart aches imagining your pain but your strength to make a positive difference from your loss makes me proud to be a human being. Society and governments need to respond to this urgent issue as WE cannot afford to wait any longer for people’s understanding. The life of a child with Autism, or other special needs, already has more challenges in their first 10 years than we will know in a life time.
I support the Mason Alert and hope that it comes to Canada too!
I agree 100%, I have a son who is Autistic…God bless this family.
I agree with this
Signing and sharing.
Tina Shang
Signing and already shared
Gerri Allgood
Great idea!
So terribly sorry for your loss. Thank you for bringing attention to this incredibly important subject.
Sorry for your loss. This is definitely something that needs to be in place !!
signed and shared !
[...] http://www.lifeprotekt.com/a-personal-request-from-sheila-and-kenneth-medlam/ [...]
[...] Sign and pass along the petition here: http://www.lifeprotekt.com/a-personal-request-from-sheila-and-kenneth-medlam/ [...]
this is a great program how can one in california become eligible??
So sorry for these losses.
[...] http://www.lifeprotekt.com/a-personal-request-from-sheila-and-kenneth-medlam/ [...]
I support 100%!!