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Fort Smith Police Department hosts Autism Awareness event

April is Autism Awareness Month.

FORT SMITH, Ark. — The Fort Smith Police Department (FSPD) brought a number of different organizations together for an Autism Awareness resource event as a chance to connect local families to the help they need. 

Aric Mitchell with FSPD said that the department strives to have officers equipped to handle any situation, as they respond to calls that involve people with different types of disabilities, including autism, almost daily. 

"This is a community effort to help make sure these individuals are safe and well cared for," Mitchell said. "It absolutely makes a huge difference in the nature of the call to have an officer who is very well prepared and knows what the resources are available to communicate with this person." 

Pervasive Parenting Center was one of the many organizations at Wednesday's event. Director Kody Toney started the organization after his son was diagnosed with autism at three years old. 

"I really didn't know much about autism, and so I started doing everything I could to try to help him," Toney said. "We were told several things that he wouldn't be able to do, we were told that he would probably never talk, he would never ride a bicycle."

"He can talk," Toney said. "He's turning 19 on Friday, and he graduated from high school last May." 

Rebecca Clark, Miss Arkansas Petite USA and the first autistic beauty queen in the state, showed up to talk to families. She said autism looks different in everyone which, is why she's working to become an occupational therapist assistant. 

"There's so much stigma that's out there. Whenever I tell people I have autism, people ask me questions like 'Do you drive?' Well, my car is in the parking lot over there," Clark said. "You're going to have ups and downs, because I know even as a high functioning person with autism, I have my struggles." 

One in 36 children have autism and both Clark and Toney said it's important to not let that hold kids back. 

"Your kid is going to overcome it and your kid is going to get through it. All it takes is just a little bit of patience and understanding," Clark said. 

"If somebody tells you that your son or your daughter can't do something, just add 'yet' to the end of that," Toney said.

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