Among the stories shared by students at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School who survived the horrific mass shooting on Feb. 14, Cameron Kasky's story stands out. His younger brother is a special needs student, and they experienced the event and the response of police to the situation together.

  • Kasky said law enforcement response was "remarkable"
  • Law enforcement in other Florida cities also receiving specialized training
  • Tampa Mayor Bob Buckhorn: initiative underway to make Tampa "Autism Friendly"

“I was picking up my younger brother who has special needs from his class," Kasky explained. "They’re all let out a bit early and I was going to take him with me to my class, and suddenly the fire alarm rings."

"And we go outside, and that was already concerning because fire drills with developmentally disabled children, putting them under those stressful situations, is always difficult,” Kasky continued.

Kasky went on to describe the response from law enforcement to the situation was remarkable.

“The SWAT team broke the window in, did an excellent job with the special needs kids," he said. "They understood they were less responsive than some of the rest of us, so we were lucky."

Miles away in Tampa, first responders have already received some of that same training Kasky said he encountered with his little brother. In fact, Tampa Mayor Bob Buckhorn has an initiative underway to make sure law enforcement here is trained too, with the goal to make the city "Autism Friendly."

Vicky Westra, who has a daughter with autism and runs an area nonprofit called Autism Shifts, is on the board for the mayor’s initiative.

“There’s not a lot of places across the country that have done anything like that, so it can make a significant impact when first responders know how to handle it for this situation and everyday situations,” Westra said.

Westra had a personal connection to the shooting in Parkland. She said her niece and nephew both graduated from Stoneman Douglas.

For her, worrying about a school shooting is bad, but knowing first responders have the important training provides some relief.

“One of the challenges that people with autism, children with autism struggle with is just sensory challenges," Westra said. "And so the things that we feel or experience, even sensory wise -- sound, noise, the energy, the chaos of what’s going on -- they feel it magnified 10 times, 20 times what we do."

“It’s so important for them to understand special needs and particularly with autism because it is so different and the individuals are affected so differently," she continued. "So the understanding of what that affect may be and the importance of how they can deal with them and help them in a situation like that is really significant, particularly in times like this.”

Several other law enforcement agencies in the Bay area, including the Pinellas, Polk, and Hillsborough County Sheriff’s offices all have training for their first responders on how to handle encounters with individuals who have special needs.