How one Highland Park mother turned a crisis into autism training for first responders

Highland Park— Kate Movius remembers the night, 11 years ago, when her world flipped upside down. But from that dark moment, brightness sprang, and it still pays dividends in training first responders about the challenges of autism.

Movius’ son, Aidan O’Donovan, was 14 at the time. The boy, who is autistic and nonverbal, had figured out the home lock system and bolted in the middle of the night. Law enforcement picked him up at 5 a.m. three miles from home, at the busy intersection of Eagle Rock and York boulevards. He had no clothes on and no identification.

Police admitted Aidan to a hospital as a John Doe, while Movius scrambled to discover if the juvenile patient was her son. Finally, the LAPD accompanied her to Aidan’s hospital room, where she waded through a bevy of social wor