June 17 2022 

People keep asking why I started this petition. Why? Because I am ANGRY.

No parent should have to bury their child and I understand that bad things happen, but this time it could easily have been prevented. That makes it so much worse. People were fishing at the river Draven Graham was found in, during the time he entered the water. They were RIGHT THERE. If this alert had already been created, they would have gotten a message soon after he went missing, instead of not finding out until hours later. They could have been keeping an eye out for him, or even searching for him, and may have gotten to him before it was too late. There's a good chance they would have.

Can you even imagine that? Finding out someone was SO CLOSE and a simple notification on their phone could have saved your child's life?? Take a second and think about how that would feel and sit with that feeling for a while. This story could have had a different ending....a happy one.  Why do we always wait until it's too late?

I didn't personally know Draven and his family, but I feel like I did. My daughter, who is also autistic, will be 11 next month and she has the same beautiful big brown eyes that Draven did. Every time I look at her now, I see him too.

She loves the water more than absolutely anything else, and has taken off many times, heading straight for it. The water is our kid's greatest love...and their worst enemy.

This hurts so much and I can't even imagine what I would do if something were to happen to my baby girl. I'm devastated that yet another family had to go through this, it needs to stop! I'm asking you to help me make it stop.

This issue has been brought up several times in the past, and I am heartbroken, and also completely disgusted that it took losing another child for people to really start to listen.

...and listening is great, but we need actual CHANGE this time. We failed Draven and his family and we've failed so many other children and their families, because as I said, this is not the first time this has happened.

How many more children need to die before we take action and make the necessary changes? If that number is more than zero, it's too many. We can NOT let this happen again. It shouldn't have happened at all.

Please keep signing and sharing the petition

Kat (Callie's mom)