LoudounNow Now LOUDOUN COUNTY’S COMMUNITY-OWNED NEWS SOURCE
[ Vol. 2, No. 28 ]
[ loudounnow.com ]
IDENTITY CRISIS: Hillsboro wants its ZIP back
34
May 18 – 24, 2017 ]
Easy on the Senses
Inova Rolls Out Specialized Approach for Autistic Patients BY NORMAN K. STYER
Renss Greene/Loudoun Now
Mindy and Rod Schulz, whose infant son was killed by a driver in August, looks on as Del. Thomas A. “Tag” Greason (R-32) speaks to his bill aimed at combating distracted driving.
Lansdowne Tragedy Prompts Student Action BY JOHN PATTERSON
A
fter a string of pedestrian deaths in Loudoun County, students and state lawmakers are getting creative to curb distracted driving before more lives are lost. Gov. Terry McAuliffe (D) came to Riverside High School on Tuesday to sign Del. Thomas A. “Tag” Greason (R-32)’s bill into law. HB 1763 allows special license plates with anti-distracted driving messages to be issued at all Virginia DMVs. Loudoun’s 15 public high schools are among those participating in a statewide competition to design the plate. The student who creates the winning design will receive a monetary prize and see their artwork on license plates across the commonwealth. Greason, who lives in Ashburn, specifically chose Riverside High School for the bill signing ceremony because of a tragedy that happened just a few
Renss Greene/Loudoun Now
Gov. Terry McAuliffe, flanked by state legislators, school administrators, DMV Commissioner Richard Holcomb, and Student Council Association President Chad Musa, signs HB 1763 at Riverside High School in Leesburg on Tuesday morning.
blocks away. On Aug. 31, Tristan Schulz, a 5-month-old baby being pushed in a stroller through a crosswalk by his mother, was struck by a car and died. Part of that investigation has focused on whether the driver was using his phone at the time. Both of Tristan’s parents, Mindy
! LE W SA NO N O
and Rod Schulz, attended Tuesday’s bill signing. “Some of the Riverside High School kids were on the scene, and tried to actually help Tristan,” Greason said. “Some of the kids who witnessed it were really impacted significantly.” Riverside students were also instrumental in drafting the bill. Senior Chad Musa, the school’s Student Council Association president, said Greason first pitched the idea at the School Board’s annual legislative breakfast in December. “Mr. Greason had brought up the idea of figuring out a way to help distracted driving, kind of curb it starting while kids are young,” Musa said. “One thing we thought would be very effective was printing a license plate because … it’s something more noticeable on the road to drivers.” Greason’s legislation sped through the General Assembly. It was pre-filed Jan. 9 and, in less than a month, passed both
The benefits of a year of research and training on the special needs of pediatric patients with sensory processing disorder were unveiled at Inova Loudoun Hospital on Friday. Visits to the emergency room can be scary for any child, but can be particularly unsettling for kids with SPD. It’s a condition in which the brain has trouble receiving and responding to information that comes in through the senses and is common in children diagnosed with autism. Sounds, smells and chaotic motions can be painful or overwhelming. Dr. Jill McCabe and her staff at the Children’s Emergency Room at the Lansdowne hospital have a new understanding of these patients’ needs and a new approach to treating kids whose cognitive disabilities make it harder for them to understand their environment and be more easily frightened in strange surroundings. “We want to work and partner with the families in the communities and make sure those tough times are great—as great as they can possibility be,” McCabe said during a briefing with reporters to explain the new program. “They are some of our most challenging patients to treat,” McCabe said. “We have felt kind of helpless to not have the best tools to take care of them.” The credit for the initiative goes largely to Allyson Halverson, the Children’s Emergency Room’s certified child life specialist who identified the need and found strong support from the hospital staff to find a better way to accommodate patients with special needs. Halverson built a partnership with George Washington University and Dr. Kevin Pelphrey, the internationally renowned neuroscientist who is leading the establishment of the $5 million Autism and Neurodevelopmental Disorders Institute at GW’s Virginia Science and Technology Campus in Ashburn. She also reached out to the Arc of Loudoun and its Aurora School for special needs students at the Paxton Campus in Leesburg.
DISTRACTED DRIVING >> 28
Where will you purchase your next mattress?
INOVA >> 29
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