David Baker wanted to do something to bring awareness and acceptance to the people who have Autism, and so he coordinated the Autism Awareness/Acceptance T-shirt Fridays at Platte City Middle School in April. All together $1,000 was raised for the Doug Flutie Foundation for Autism.
The Flutie Foundation aims to provide a path for education and/or employment during the day; opportunities for physical and social activity outside of work/school; and the tools to be safe, supported, and informed at all times.
Baker is the self-contained special education teacher at PCMS. He is also the Platte County High School assistant baseball coach.
He decided to coordinate the T-shirt Fridays because of the love he has for the kids he gets to work with, and he said it’s what makes him want to get out of bed everyday. He wants to share his joy with the community.
“Acceptance is about shining a light on the awesomeness that autistic people bring to the world,” Baker said. “It’s about making people aware of what productive members of society these individuals actually are. By doing this we open the door of compassion and understanding.”
This is the second year for T-shirt Fridays.
“The first year was the year we got sent home with COVID-19, but our valiant staff still wore their T-shirts every Friday in their Zoom classes,” Baker said.
T-shirt Fridays emphasized the importance of treating autistic people as people, including them in activities and having genuine friendships with them. Baker said there were a lot of remarks and feedback from students who thought the idea was awesome, and they wanted to be involved in future T-shirt Fridays by being able to get shirts to wear to show their support.
Baker said autistic students don’t view themselves as autistic, they just view themselves as kids. “This is our goal, we want everyone to just view them as kids,” Baker said.
Supporting kids is important to Baker, and he has worked with many organizations that help students with different abilities, such as the YMCA Challenger group and others.
While Baker believes most students know that individuals with autism are different, they don’t know a lot about what makes them unique.
“For the most part our community of kids is very kind, sometimes too kind,” Baker said. “I want them to realize more that they don’t need to treat individuals with Autism differently (as if they are small children or something). Just treat them like you would any of your other friends.”
The T-shirt’s message was ‘Someone with Autism makes me Smile’ and for Baker this couldn’t be more true. “They do make me smile every single day. I love them, and I want nothing more than for them to be productive members of our society. That is success in my book.”
The most misunderstood aspects of Autism is that these kids are less intelligent than other kids, and Baker believes that in many ways they are more intelligent. He encourages people to show autistic people they are being appreciated and accepted by practicing inclusion and understanding. Baker’s favorite part of raising awareness about Autism, and the school raising $1,000 for the Doug Flutie Autistic Foundation is seeing his community shine. “It just makes me so proud that our community of teachers and support staff stepped up to show how much they love and understand that differences don’t make you different. That all of our kids deserve the love, respect, and kindness of the community.”
Baker was nominated for, and won a “Dougie Award” from the Flutie Foundation for being a champion of the Autism community. As part of that award, the foundation made a $500 donation in his name to a charity of his choice. He chose The Farmer’s House in Weston, as they serve individuals with all levels of abilities throughout the community.
Although Baker is moving to Arkansas this summer, he is hoping T-shirt Fridays will continue next year.
“I know the community here in Platte City will continue to support all of our awesome kids!”