Laurie Guerra has stepped down.

Here is the official statement issued by AutismBC

NO one is taking accountability for Laurie Guerra’s actions.

Read below as I dissect each paragraph and give my own personal opinion on what has been said.

Over the last few days, some concerns and negative perspectives about AutismBC have been expressed by our members, by others in the autism community, and in social media.  While the basis of these issues is unfounded, we are deeply concerned about the undue stress this situation has caused.   Our Past President Laurie Guerra has resigned as a director of AutismBC, effective November 12th.

“Some concerns and negative perspectives”, none of which they are addressing. This to me almost says that the comments were unfounded and perhaps not rooted in any truth. How would anyone know? It’s not like they are being specific at all.

“While the basis of these issued is unfounded, we are deeply concerned about the undue stress this situation has caused.” Wow, UNFOUNDED? Please tell me what is unfounded about what has been said. I’m also very curious as to which person or group as a whole has been caused undue stress. Laurie? AutismBC? Surely they can’t be talking about all the stress they have put on to those in the Autistic and LGBTQ2+ community who are STRIVING for their voices to be heard, addressed and considered.

Our guiding light is to be a leader in the Autism community, providing education, training, information and support for families. We want to ensure that our strong commitment to inclusion of all people is clear. We want to preserve the trust of the community, and we will fortify our endeavor to be transparent and accountable to all members of the community.

Oh, your guiding light is to be a leader. Leader in what? Leader in ignorance? If that’s the case, take as much credit as you want for that. You’ve earned it.

Providing education? I’d like to know if you consider ABA education. ABA is incredibly harmful and it’s a practice you choose to heavily promote.

I have called AutismBC for support as an adult and autistic individual seeking assistance for my mental health as well as a number of issues. They could not provide a single resource to me. When they say that they provide support for families, they seem to exclude singular people who are over the age of 18. The resources are lacking for us. I had to find a doctor on my own to get my diagnosis. No one helped me.

“We want to ensure that our strong commitment to inclusion of all people is clear.” REALLY? Because you haven’t done that at all. In fact, you haven’t really addressed anyones concerns. I think the main worry for AutismBC is to try to keep this sanitized image by not engaging with anyone who does not agree with the people they hire or the practices they choose to put forward.

“We want to preserve the trust of the community, and we will fortify our endeavor to be transparent and accountable to all members of the community.”

If that’s something that you want to do, you’ve failed miserably. No one trusts you. You fail at taking any responsibility for Laurie, who you probably considered one of your own. I bet you’ll miss all your gala events with her in fancy dress, trying to feel important while gaining monetary donations from your list of sponsors, who probably support you because it makes THEM look good, not because they have ANY IDEA of what you “do”. While you won’t address the concerns of all the autistic people in your community, you  seemingly have attempted to silenced those who have been so vocal. I don’t think they attempted to personally reach out to anyone in the Autistic community who has spoken up throughout this entire issue.

We WILL be heard. Why couldn’t you have been transparent and accountable? This would have been the perfect opportunity to do all the things you said you WILL be putting forward.

As President of AutismBC, I encourage all those in our community to continue to engage with our activities and learn more about the important work we do across British Columbia.

Sincerely,

Gary Robins
President
AutismBC

Gary, you’re the president. You’re not handling things like a good president should. Laurie already passed around “fake news”. Don’t be a Trump, Be an Obama.

You don’t need to encourage all those in the community to continue to engage with your activities and learn about the “important work you do across British Columbia”, it’s all plain as day on your website. Why don’t you take the chance to engage with Autistic people and advocates in your community?

The Autistic community, WE are already passionately involved. It seems you have NO IDEA what we care about or our array of abilities. I hope you’re reading this. I hope you listen. This can’t happen again.

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