When her son was little, Laura Hawthorne would spend Autism Awareness Day reading to kids at his daycare, educating others about the disorder.
This year, she was outside the St. Albert RCMP station, holding signs emblazoned with slogans like “autism is not a crime” and quotes taken from a recording of her son’s arrest: “it’s okay!” and “mom!”
Her campaigning for autism awareness used to be “in a more positive light,” she said. But on Tuesday, as she stood on the corner of Bellerose Drive and Boudreau Road, she was feeling only “outrage.”
Last week the Alberta Serious Incident Response Team (ASIRT) released a report that detailed the 2022 arrest of then 16-year-old Ryley Bauman. The non-verbal, autistic teen was playing at the Lacombe School playground when three St. Albert RCMP officers, mistakenly believing that Bauman was intoxicated and a known drug user, arrested Bauman. The teen injured himself while in custody and was later sedated and taken to hospital.
Matthew Block, the report’s author and assistant executive director with ASIRT, found the RCMP had "reasonable grounds to believe an offence had been committed” by RCMP, but the Alberta Crown Prosecution Service did not deem the evidence strong enough to charge the officers.
Although the Crown won't be pursuing charges, the case is still before the Civilian Review and Complaints Commission (CRCC) for the RCMP.
Hawthorne said that after he was detained, her son started “arresting his toys,” replaying the incident and then bringing the toys to Hawthorne “for a hug.”
He doesn’t play alone anymore. If police drive by, he has panic attacks and says “police hurts,” Hawthorne said.
Hawthorne signed Bauman up for an 18-and-under activity group with Autism Edmonton, but he couldn’t attend regularly because “there were security guards and police everywhere,” she said.
Bauman can’t visit his grandparents anymore because the incident took place in the playground outside their St. Albert home.
She doesn’t believe her son will “ever get over it.”
“That's the thing with autism — he can't forget it,” she said. “He remembers every little thing … it's almost a year and a half, but nothing has changed for us and it's sort of only compounded and gotten worse.”
A quote from the ASIRT report of an officer saying he would arrest anyone who was behaving how Bauman behaved on the day of the incident drove Hawthorne to protest.
She wants St. Albert RCMP to implement more training focused on autism and disability awareness.
Alberta RCMP media spokesperson Cpl. Troy Savinkoff said the St. Albert detachment has taken autism training since the incident.
"On November 29, 2022, The Autism Society of Edmonton Area was engaged to provide in-person training for each of St. Albert detachment’s police officers," Savinkoff said in an email. "This was done proactively, and prior to the initiation of the CRCC process. Additionally, three of our community policing officers completed the Canucks Autism Network’s Autism Training for First Responders course."
St. Albert resident Michelle Gunderson joined Hawthorne on Tuesday.
Gunderson said she’s had similar encounters with police who didn’t understand how to treat children with disorders and disabilities.
“My heart broke for [Hawthorne], as a mother,” Gunderson said. “I don't want this to happen to somebody else's kid."
Only Hawthorne and Gunderson made it to Tuesday’s protest. The pair waved neon-coloured signs at traffic under a grey sky.
Drivers honked in support. One woman rolled down her window and said she felt awful for what Hawthorne’s child had to go through, bringing tears to Hawthorne’s eyes.
A man in a yellow van stopped to say his daughter also had autism.
Hawthorne said there will be another protest on Saturday at 1 p.m. in the same location.
She knew not many people would make it on Tuesday, but it was important for her to be there for Autism Awareness Day, she said.
