Back in 2022, then-Maryland Del. Rachel Jones didn't think dropping campaign fliers at homes in her downstate district would be a particularly dangerous activity for her 12-year-old son, Aaron, who has autism.
But Aaron accidentally went to the back door of a house in Dunkirk rather than the front to deposit fliers. Suddenly, Jones saw her son sprinting down the street with four adults chasing him, she said. He ran into the car and cried.
"It was a very scary moment," Jones said, explaining that Aaron's condition made him unable to defuse the situation.
Thanks to a law that went into effect on Wednesday, the now-16-year-old Aaron has a state-issued ID marked with a butterfly that indicates he has a non-apparent disability.
Jones drafted a bill in 2022 that served as a precursor to what is known as Eric's ID Law.
"This is what we wanted, is something on the ID that law enforcement, anybody, can take a few extra seconds to look at and say, 'Oh, let me have some understanding when I'm communicating with this person,'" she said at the Maryland Motor Vehicle Administration's White Oak Branch office in Silver Spring, where the first butterfly-adorned IDs were distributed Wednesday.
Anyone in the state can get the marker on their ID or driver's license simply by asking for it, no paperwork necessary, said Chrissy Nizer, head of the Maryland Department of Transportation Motor Vehicle Administration.
Aaron was the second person in the state to receive the ID. Eric Carpenter-Grantham, 20, for whom the law was named, was the first.
Carpenter-Grantham started thinking about issues that could arise in his future encounters with police in 2020, shortly after George Floyd was killed by a Minneapolis police officer. Floyd's murder prompted Eric's mother, Linda Carpenter-Grantham, to give her son a talk about interacting with police, worried about how his autism would factor into such an encounter.
"She told me put my hands up. Don't reach for my phone because they probably would think I'm reaching for a gun. Just yell out my name and her phone number and yell out I have autism," Eric Carpenter-Grantham recalled.
He said the conversation had him thinking of his friends and the myriad ways their autism manifests in their behaviors and communication styles. They might freeze or run if stopped by police, he said, scared of the presence of tasers or guns.
In 2023, after mulling over how to bridge the potential disconnect between people with disabilities and law enforcement, he landed on the ID marker idea, Carpenter-Grantham said.
The idea of using a butterfly came from the butterfly magnet on his mother's refrigerator, he said. He and his mom searched online to see if the insect had any special significance. They discovered butterfly iconography represents "hope, peace, freedom and change," he said.
Those words became guiding principles in the battle that lay ahead in Annapolis.
The mother-son duo brought the idea to state Sen. Will Smith (D-Montgomery County), who represents their Silver Spring neighborhood. He loved the idea, he said, and committed to sponsoring a bill.
But some state agency leaders and disabilities rights advocates pushed back, raising concerns about privacy, stigma, insurance rates and more.
"All these things that you never would have considered were brought up, and they're all valid and legitimate," Smith said. The lawmakers worked "to negotiate and to consult people from all across the interest groups, all across the spectrum."
Under the law, the state is barred from conveying whether someone has the disability marker to insurance companies, a measure of protection against cardholders being charged higher premiums for obtaining one of the IDs. Those with disabilities may elect to get the marker, but it is completely voluntary.
Smith said that throughout the process of testifying for the bill, a number of high-profile incidents between people with disabilities and law enforcement officers in the state resurfaced.
In 2013, Robert Ethan Saylor, who had Down syndrome, died of asphyxia after three off-duty Frederick County sheriff's deputies restrained him when he refused to leave a mall movie theater, a scuffle that caused all four men to collapse in a heap. In 2021, Ryan LeRoux was killed by police at a McDonald's drive-through in Montgomery County while in the middle of a mental health crisis. Police alleged he was holding a gun.
The butterfly probably will not de-escalate every interaction, Smith said. An encounter with law enforcement officers could still go dangerously awry if someone with a non-apparent disability reaches into their pocket to pull out the ID, and communication breakdowns will probably persist. The butterfly-marked ID will just provide the officer with another "information data point on how to deal with that person," Smith said.
On Wednesday afternoon, Eric Carpenter-Grantham was surrounded by people cheering and chanting his name as he received his ID.
"I want to let the disability community know that this law was created for you and for me to feel safe and have a voice," he told a crowd of lawmakers, friends and young people with disabilities as the sun shined brightly on the brick building behind him.
As he beamed at his fresh ID emblazoned with the insignia inspired by his fridge magnet, Carpenter-Grantham's mind zeroed in on his next challenge: learning to drive.
"Hopefully I can get my driver's license next," he said.
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