All day on Friday, July 22, 2022, we invite the world to join us and our family friend Jennifer Meis Abbanat in a candlelight and rocks vigil for Max Benson.
Yesterday, a grand jury indicted three people responsible in the restraint death of 13-year-old Autistic Max Benson. His mother, Stacia Benson, is on our board of directors.
This is a small step on the road to #JusticeForMax that has taken years. We want to take this moment to honor Max’s memory.
You’ve heard of candlelight vigils, but Max really loved rocks (fossils, gemstones, geodes, crystals, minerals) and fire— so this is both!
Our Autistic community will understand autistic passions.
So, to honor Max, we are inviting everyone who is moved to join us to light a candle or even get out their rock collection and take a moment to remember Max. Then, please take a picture of your candle, rocks, crystals or both and use the hashtags #ShineOnMax and #JusticeForMax.
You can take a selfie in solidarity or just use a picture of your rocks or candles— or you can use both, and post every picture to social media.
We do this because we still love Max, and we want the world to see that Autistic children and adults are precious to us. We deserve to live, Autistic people taken from us too soon deserve justice, and every Autistic person’s presence is important and worth honoring.
We welcome anyone who would like to participate to join us wherever you are and honor Max in your own way.
Max would appreciate your rocks being whole mountains. He would have appreciated your candles being blowtorches or flamethrowers or wording torches— because he was extra in the most amazing ways.
Please consider taking a moment of your day and sharing your photo on social media with the hashtag, #ShineOnMax
You can join us on Facebook today, July 22, at 12pm Eastern Daylight Time for a live event commemorating the life of Max Benson, and calling for justice.
- Inside The Judge Rotenburg Center Live Event - July 23, 2022
- Worldwide #ShineOnMax Candlelight and Rocks Vigil - July 22, 2022
4 Responses
Behavioral restraints need to be outlawed everywhere. They’re not even being used properly and they’re being used for very petty incidents. Sometimes I wonder if some staff get their jollies from torturing kids this way.
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