A father from Citrus County, Florida, is frustrated and afraid of drivers who are constantly speeding past his home. While speeding drivers can make a neighborhood unsafe for children, Chris Jaymes is especially concerned about how dangerous the speeding drivers are making it for his Autistic son to play outside.

According to FOX 13, Chris’ three-year-old son – Grayson – has severe autism. As such, Grayson is unable to understand or respond to verbal commands. According to Chris, this means he can’t yell “stop” or tell Grayson not to get any closer to the street because he doesn’t understand.

Autism alert signs don’t exist

Afraid for his son’s safety, this Florida father reached out to Citrus County about getting a warning sign installed to alert drivers to the fact that a child with autism lived in the area. Unfortunately, the county told Chris an autism warning sign did not exist. Given the fact that children with autism are known to wander – and in his case Grayson would not respond to commands to come back after wandering – a sign similar to those alerting drivers to blind or deaf children in the area would be very helpful.

Jaymes had his neighbors have made attempts to take matters into their own hands by putting up signs to alert drivers that autistic children were in the vicinity to encourage them to slow down.

After speaking to the county, Chris was informed that he would need to contact someone at state level or someone at the Department of Transportation as the county could not install a sign that didn’t exist. Jaymes, however, believes that the county was just trying to pass the problem to someone else.

Petition for change

While Jaymes has created his own signs temporarily to take problems into his own hands, he has acknowledged that this is not just his problem.

In fact, he decided to start a petition on change.org to put pressure on the Department of Transportation. He hopes that with enough pressure, these Warning Signs can be made available and installed in communities at the request of parents of autistic children.

According to FOX 13, some have argued with the Florida father that the easy solution to his problem would be to build a fence around his home.

He, however, was unable to get the necessary permit to erect a fence around his property.

While there are some communities that have voted in favor of Autism warning signs, this is not something that exists at a state level.

Does this Florida father have a point? Should autism warning signs be made readily available to install in communities where autistic people live? Let us know what you think in the comments below.
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