An autistic student named Jesse Snodgrass who was 17-years-old had recently transferred to Chaparral High School in Temecula when he was befriended by Dan. Dan was also a new comer, except he was an undercover officer attending classes at Chaparral hoping to bust student drug dealers. Immediately Dan began pressuring Jesse to sneak pills from his parent’s medicine cabinet or buy some marijuana. Eventually Jesse sought out a homeless man near a dispensary and traded twenty dollars Dan had given him for a plastic bag containing less than a gram of marijuana leaves. A few months after the boys met and Jesse was arrested. Jesse’s parents navigated through the court system. A judge cleared him of the drug charges. The evidence was overwhelming that his disability had influenced his actions.…show more content… I wish there were more parents like this. We need people to stand up for is right and take the correct actions needed. Snodgrass should have never been the target of an undercover. Again this article goes to show the lack of training law enforcement has on disabilities like autism that is a social disability. For Snodgrass Dan’s request had nothing to do with a criminal act in the mind of Snodgrass. To him the important aspect of Dan’s request was merely the fact that Dan was his new friend and Dan wanted drugs, as his friend Snodgrass had to get him the drugs. It is tragic this family had to live through this situation, however, maybe going through the nightmare will encourage them to change laws to protect people with disabilities to some
