C.A.S.P.E.R. reaching out to schools
8-29-17 C.A.S.P.E.R. Club
After gaining approval by the Maryville City Council, and after about a year of organization by Maryville Public Safety, the C.A.S.P.E.R. Club is ready for rollout.
C.A.S.P.E.R. stands for Communication Awareness and Safety Procedures for Emergency Responders, and is a program designed to alert first responders and law enforcement officials to the presence of a person with communication issues, autism, and intellectual, emotional, or other disabilities in the instance of an interaction. Maryville Public Safety dispatch supervisor Jessica Sigman, who took over the program when Caitlin Kinman left in February, said the department is now reaching out to schools.
“We’re going to each school in Maryville one at a time for an individualized approach,” Sigman said. “We’ve started by handing out the forms to students at Eugene Field Elementary School, and we’ll wait until after we’ve received those back to start in on other area schools.”
The forms explain that dispatchers who find out that law enforcement or first responders will be coming into contact with C.A.S.P.E.R. Club members will notify the responders immediately. That information is vital so that responders can approach the situation with specific needs in mind.
“It gives the officers a heads-up ahead of contact and gives them that awareness that something may be different about the stop,” Sigman said. “It lets the officer know that the person’s response may be unusual, which allows them to prepare.”
The form is voluntary for parents to fill out, and the data will be used to create customized C.A.S.P.E.R. cards and safety tools, such as window decals that can be used on cars or in homes. The information will be stored at the Dispatch Center and only used to provide responders with the individual’s possible communication styles, triggers, dislikes, calming techniques, and emergency contacts.
A release notes that, eventually, the club will share training opportunities with first responders in the county as well as club members and their families. “It is important to us that C.A.S.P.E.R. members and first responders are familiar with each other, and of expectations during high-stress encounters,” the release notes.
As for now, however, Maryville Public Safety is focused primarily on reaching out to the citizens of Maryville through the Maryville R-II School District and, eventually, St. Gregory’s School and Horace Mann Laboratory School.
“We’ve also talked about Head Start,” Sigman said. “But first, we’re starting with schools that have special education programs and IEDs on file.”
Parents who are interested in having their children be part of the program need only fill out the form when they receive it and return it to Maryville Public Safety. Blank forms can also be picked up at the office or sent to an interested parent’s email.
After the forms are received, Public Safety will set a time to meet with the parents and students to give them safety tools and get a picture of the student for their C.A.S.P.E.R. card and the club’s database.