Buentello: Our understanding of disabilities has changed. It's about time our laws do too
In the last few months, the state legislature has been debating hundreds of bills concerning everything from the tax code to healthcare policy to public safety. In this political climate, it’s easy to tune out the noise of all those decisions, as they’re being debated more than a hundred miles away from our home. Lord knows there are times that I just want to get home and have dinner with my family in peace. But so many decisions being made up there deeply affect my family, and in turn, our community. And today, I want to talk a little bit about what it’s like to be Noel’s mama, and the connection to a bill that just passed.
I have one child, a boy named Noel. He’s a kind, vivacious kid who’s 12 years old and already wearing size 7 men’s shoes. When he was a baby, he made fine eye contact and gurgled often, but eventually fell silent and stopped looking. As a toddler, he began intentionally hitting his head when he was frustrated and silently dancing when he was ecstatic.
He was soon diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder, as well as having Intellectual/Developmental disabilities.
And then my whole world shifted as the thought occurred to me – what could go wrong, raising a little boy who might not ever speak? Even more distressingly, what would happen when he grew out of being that sweet toddler, who’s afraid of sirens, loved toy trains, and trying to catch fireflies at Grandma’s cabin?
We have all seen the headlines about the often-disproportionate response to emergency situations with children with disabilities, as well as the racial disparities in our criminal justice system. In Colorado, children of color are 1 ½ to 3 times more likely to be arrested and interrogated than their white counterparts. They are more often harmed by false confessions, directly contributing to that racial disparity; that disparity only gets worse when one factors other exceptionalities like disabilities. As you would imagine, children are more susceptible to manipulation and more likely to provide inaccurate information and false confessions under such pressure. In the past 25 years, of youth who were exonerated after being convicted of crimes, 38% gave false confessions.
And it looks like our state will do something about it this year. HB23-1042, which has been passed by the House and Senate, will help ensure that law enforcement officers receive training for interrogation of youth and prioritize securing confessions that are voluntary and reliable.
It wasn’t so long ago that there was another young man from Pueblo with intellectual disabilities named Joseph Arridy. He was also a sweet, naïve boy that loved toy trains. And he was killed by the state of Colorado, at the age of 23, on a criminal conviction that was largely based on a false confession extracted by the then-Pueblo County sheriff. The sheriff had a witness who stated a tall man with dark features was seen fleeing the scene; he decided that Arridy fit that bill, and so Arridy became the sole person of interest in a murder investigation. Arridy understood so little of the gravity of the situation that he falsely confessed, thinking he could just leave afterwards. He was convicted and subsequently sentenced to death; he even requested ice cream for his last meal.
The sad fact is that Joseph Arridy is far from the last person with disabilities to be unjustly thrown in prison or even killed. The murder of Elijah McClain, another young man with autism, filled me with a profound existential anxiety; I could so easily see my own boy dancing on the side of the road and panicking under physical restraint of a poorly trained police officer.
Over the years, I’ve learned to live with anxiety as my boy grows up to be a man. But last year, it was estimated that 1 in 36 children were diagnosed with autism; my kid is far from the only kid in Colorado or even Pueblo, with autism. And our knowledge and understanding of this disability has changed.
It’s about time our laws do too.
HB23-1042 provides legal safeguards for these kids and vital training for law enforcement officers for an understanding of these disabilities, as well as best practices engaging this emerging population as these kids grow into adults. I look forward to Gov. Jared Polis signing this bill into law to help build trust in our criminal justice system and most importantly for the safety for the community, especially our Pueblo children.
Bri Buentello is a Pueblo mom, former special education teacher, and served as the state representative for House District 47. She is the Government Affairs Director for Stand for Children Colorado, a nonprofit organization that advances educational equity and racial justice through meaningful partnerships with families, educators, schools, and policymakers.
This article originally appeared on The Pueblo Chieftain: Buentello: HB 1042 helps make Pueblo kids with disabilities safer
