The Power of Participation

This past Thursday, April 5, I had the honor of accompanying Nate to the Special Olympics, Track & Field Event.  Nate has not attended for several years now and we thought we'd give it our best.  When his brother, Brandon, dropped us off, Nate jumped right out of the car and we happily walked hand-in-hand together.  Nate came to right outside the track where his school was camped out and turned around and started running back toward the parking lot.  I haven't seen Nate run in years so already the exercise was beginning (for both of us!).  A few of the teachers (and it took a few) helped me bring Nate back.  We had to do a whole bunch of sweet talking.  Nate does not like crowds of people, new experiences or lots of noise and activity.  I really wanted him to give it a try, for him to know he was safe and quite able to get through this.  Had he escalated we would have had Brandon come pick us up but it wasn't necessary after all and Brandon was able to go on to his college classes for the day and return in time to help Nate in his last event.  Once we were able to get Nate seated one of his teachers pulled out several books.  Nate has always loved books.  He loves to read and he loves to have someone read to him so we were able to create comfortable territory amidst all the activity.

Besides all the teachers, teachers' aids, parents and students there were many volunteers.  At Nate's school they have a leadership class that spends time with the students in Nate's class on an individual basis.  They are called "pals" and have brought much happiness to Nate during his school days.  These pals helped prepare Nate for the Track & Field events by going on long walks together through the halls of the school, including up and down the stairs.  In addition, they worked at throwing balls which was also one of Nate's events.  Sometimes they all cook together and other times read.  Nate has really responded well to this program and has become more interactive as a result.  You can see them in their green shirts at the event.

Nate had a tremendous day at Special Olympics, accomplished a lot and walked out of there with confidence I haven't seen in years.  Nate doesn't seem to have a competitive nature whatsoever but he was very proud of his medals and wore them throughout the weekend.  In fact today he chose to wear them to school.  Giant steps!  What some people would consider baby steps are enormous for these kids and young adults and we celebrate every one of them along the way.  What a gift, to be a parent to each of my two guys...Nate and Brandon.  Following are a couple pictures from that day.

Nate with volunteer about to start 25 meter walk.

Nate coached by Brandon on his tennis ball throw.

You can see Nate wearing his medal from 25 meter walk.

On the back of some of the kids t-shirts was a great saying: 

 "God please let me win and if not, give me the courage and strength to finish."

Beautiful kids, beautiful day.

A real inspiration.

Culpable Negligence ?

We are getting reports whereby the government is finally owning some culpability in the massive, unsafe immunizations that occurred throughout the eighties, nineties and into the new millennium.  They have been paying families millions of dollars in settlement money for the vaccine damage to their children which includes autism.  We are just finding out about this!?!  Autism went from 1 in 10,000 (prior to 1990) to the 1990's ratio of 1 in 150 children and has continued to increase throughout the first decade of 2000 to current day numbers indicating 1 in 100 children effected with autistic traits following immunizations.

In the 1990's thimerisol (a preservative, containing mercury, found in immunizations) was identified as unsafe for many children as their bodies were unable to metabolize metals, in this case mercury.  Instead the mercury accumulated to significant amounts and crossed the blood-brain barrier thus causing brain damage, quite often effecting the speech center and sensory systems of these children.  If you look up the symptoms of mercury poisoning you find them to be the same as we are seeing in many of our children with autism.

There was a recent article published that indicates continued problems as seen in the statistics above even after taking thimerisol out of the early childhood immunizations.  This study identified the introduction of fetal DNA in vaccines as the trigger.  The study tells us that "the vaccines contain significant residual human DNA fragments that can insert themselves into vaccine recipient cells........this insertion can cause genomic disruption resulting in autism."  To read more about this, see article in ChristianNewsWire describing the "ticking time bomb that has already exploded." 

What we learned from the 90's is that autism was no longer considered epidemic proportions but by the end of the 90's had moved into a classification known as pandemic.  What we also learned from the 90's was that when these children with autism went through a cheolation process large amounts of mercury and aluminum would show up in their blood and urine samples (far beyond what is considered "normal").  Another bit of information we garnered from the 90's was that when the vaccines were introduced to third world countries, these countries then started to have cases of autism pop up everywhere among their young, freshly immunized children, whereby those countries had never seen a case of autism before.  We've known its the immunizations, we've known it does not negatively effect all or even most children...yet we could not get the government (FDA) or the drug companies to own their culpability in the destruction of the productive lives of these children, instead leaving an enormous burden on the families and eventually the Social Security Disability and Medicaid rolls.

 

I believe most parents with this knowledge are NOT anti-vaccine people but instead share the belief that vaccines should be safe and should be well researched and tested before requiring mass inoculation and in the event there is a question, then we have the right to be informed immediately and decide about the risk for our own children.  I know not one of those families are thanking the government for allowing their child to become a guinea pig for their experimentation.  And I know not one of those families are thrilled with the thought that the major drug companies producing these vaccines combed in unbelievable amounts of profits as a result of the government requiring mass inoculation.  There have been class action suits and individual suits brought against the drug companies, who continue to deny there is any correlation.  The drug companies are wealthy beyond measure and for every study brought up in the lawsuits showing cause and effect, they pay for five more studies negating that connection.  Remember what I said in my last post, one can always find the evidence to support one's belief (or in this case - agenda).  And there can be creation of evidence if needed, as seen in my legal case, by the opposing side.

The recent information of the government "secretly" settling with some families is not a surprise, see this article and short FOXnewscast describing such settlements.  The need to keep it secret must have been enormous as there are hundreds of thousands of kids (and their families) negatively impacted.  It will be interesting to see what happens now, if anything.  A requirement of filing claims with this government program is that the claim must be filed within 3 years of onset.  I know for one, when my Nate started changing and showing the signs of withdrawal we did not have this information and in 1992 the doctors were baffled.  Diagnosing Nate was like a three ring circus.  By the time he was 5 years old he must have had at least 8 different diagnosis, with autism being the last educated guess.  You see there is no blood test or genetic test to confirm the diagnosis...it is more a process of elimination and observation of behavior patterns.  It wasn't until 2001 that I first learned of the connection between the immunizations and autism and by then Nate was 10 years old and it was far too late to make a claim.  Further, the government and the drug companies have bombarded us with the denial of this link between autism and vaccines, even going so far as to repeatedly discredit the doctors doing the research and the results of the scientific research with findings to the contrary.

In developing The NOAH Project (2001-2002) I had decided we would focus on the best overall treatment for these kids.  How we could respect their differences and work with them in the most loving way, how we could support their nutritional needs and how we could educate and help their parents and other parents (attending our speaking series) gather resources, that is doctors, therapists and nutritionists who were tuned into this information and could help clear the children of the neurotoxins and at the same time boost their immune systems.  An informed parent can best help their children if they know what is going inside their child's body and find ways to offset the negative impact; in contrast the denial campaigns of the government and drug companies does not help progress or focus on the effective treatment for these kids.  I did not attack the drug companies or FDA.  It was always my hope they would step up and become accountable.  Apparently it now becomes evident they handled the few extreme cases where the parents had the knowledge and wherewithal to make the claims on a timely basis and the impact of the vaccines were immediate and drastic rather than slow developing over time, as it was for most of our kids.

We are still faced with determining the best ways to help the kids (and now many are young adults) who have been effected.  I have remained a believer in the The Son-Rise Program in terms of treatment (although limited to home-based), teaching the children to be interactive in the most spontaneous way.  The public schools are now doing a far better job working with our kids.  The explosive population of children with autism started in the 90's and took everybody by surprise, especially the public school system, they had to scramble to find certified special ed teachers, qualified teacher aids and ways to reach these kids. 

Nutritional needs and vitamin intervention are still vital in boosting their compromised immune systems and helping clear the fog away, which quite often is created by gluten and casein foods (found in most processed food items).  At The NOAH Project we issued a quarterly Nutrition newsletter to all families, teachers and therapists who were on our mailing lists from the speaking series (approximately 3,000 people).  Here are a few pages from our newsletters prepared by our staff nutritionist (you will see we were careful and still soft pedaled the role of immunizations in creating this malady):

If you know families challenged with a child showing symptoms of delayed development, limited or no speech and/or overload of sensory systems, encourage them to get early intervention.  The sooner they address the problems, the more likely the child will respond and possibly reverse the effects.  Most of all, find the doctors/pediatricians that are focused on safe immunizations.  There are alternatives, such as splitting up the viruses,  and administering the vaccines over a longer period of time.  Research!  Encourage them to become empowered parents taking initiative, instead of blindly trusting the "experts".  Most of all encourage them to love their children and support them in the most positive ways.  If nothing else these children teach us to love unconditionally....a gift in itself!!

Reverence for Life...Take Action

It's interesting how life works, isn't it?  We are brought the very challenges we need at just the right time.  I cannot say I would have asked for any of my particular challenges, at least not outright, but certainly they were presented.  In each instance, it has always been clear to me that I was in charge of how I responded, for that is really all I have control of...my attitudes.  As a result of that awareness I redefine challenges as opportunities.

I have been drawn to the works of Albert Schweitzer for as far back as I can remember.  A German man of many talents: he built organs, became an acclaimed organist, a church pastor and a university professor with a doctorate in philosophy.  At the age of 30, aware of the need for medical care in Africa, he decided to become a medical doctor and devote the rest of his life to serving these people.  At the age of 37 he opened a hospital in Lambarene, Gabon - at the time a French province in Equatorial Africa.  He continued there until his death, at the age of 90, traveling back and forth to Europe for fundraising and gathering of supplies over the years.  During World War I, both Schweitzer and his wife were imprisoned in France until the war was over, both becoming very ill because of the conditions in the prison.  In his life he wrote several books, my favorite is "Reverence For Life".  Schweitzer was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize at the age of 78.

Reverence for Life is a philosophy and speaks to our responsibility for all that we do, and calls upon us to have awareness and respect for all living things.  A simple message that gets overlooked so easily.

The other author who has had a significant influence in my life is Viktor Frankl with his book "Man's Search for Meaning".  Frankl was a Holocaust survivor and speaks to our responsibility to choose our attitude in any given circumstance, thus his own survival in a concentration camp of World War II.  He went on to become a professor of psychiatry and neurology plus an author of several books, helping many in the healing of their lives.

Both Schweitzer and Frankl lived challenging lives, helped others and believed strongly in always doing the next right thing.  Both wrote on the importance of attitude and awareness.  Both were imprisoned as innocent men.  Both were men of action, absolutely committed to making life better for others.  Both have been quoted saying that words are meaningless without action.  How can I not take action in my own life when I championed the lives and causes of these two men?  My belief in Jesus and all His promises is the foundation setting underneath all of this...and probably the reason for my draw to the works of these two men in the first place. 

Is it any wonder that I had a child whose personality and life were imprisoned with autism, giving me the opportunity of my life to connect and make certain he knew of my love for him.  But I never really wanted to stop there, I wanted to share what I knew with other families.  I still plan to continue in several different ways, by setting up a business that promotes a product for the nutritional needs of these kids whose immune systems are compromised, by writing books (for which I have partial drafts of two books) and by getting involved in working with these kids again.  Although this time I will include the young adults as my sweet Nate is now almost 20 years old.

Then of all things, I also had to endure life in prison, while falsely accused and wrongly convicted.  But didn't the writings of Schweitzer and Frankl influence my response, allowing me to come home further enriched.  I believe they must have.  And now that I am out of prison I feel just as strongly a need to help victims of the justice system as my need to help those afflicted with autism (both child and family).  But to just speak it, to just write in a blog about it, is not enough.  I have decided I must take action.

Through my experience of the justice system, I learned what is going on "inside", both inside the court room and inside the county jail and state prison.  I learned there are so many people imprisoned in Texas who could more effectively be helped by rehabilitation.  Like a dry alcoholic, they walk out of prison with all the same hungers....the addiction has not been confronted and healed, it may have been touched on at a superficial level.  Some people are lucky enough to just quit, once clean for a time, but most are still driven by that addiction.  They must do the healing of the underlying causes for their addictions, or they will be right back at it, medicating their pain.  When I say that recidivism is not being addressed, this is what I am talking about.  By not healing these people (those that are willing - which in my experience are numerous) then we are just providing a revolving door within the criminal justice system.

Further, EDUCATION!!  It must be increased.  Many of those imprisoned are without proper education.  We are not preparing people to reenter society with skills that will keep them from falling back into trouble.  People leaving prison have got to be employable.  Many are not, thus moving back into illegal activities to provide a living or means of survival.  Are we for our people in this country or not?  It is so difficult to get my arms around the fact that we are one of the most advanced countries on this earth, yet so many people are falling through the cracks. 

On the employable issue there is yet another piece.   Twenty one percent of Americans have a "criminal background" given our runaway justice system.  Their must be a shift in thinking by recruiters and employers or there will be no hiring of those with criminal backgrounds, thus increasing our government subsidy programs (food stamps, Medicaid, MHMR payments, TANF, etc).  What many people do not realize is this group can be the hardest workers, with some of the best work ethics, as they are motivated to prove they are worthy.  Positive reinforcement is giant to these people.  That is what most would seek and respond to in prison and that is what will work once released to really bring them to a new lifestyle as they become productive citizens.

Then of course there are the falsely accused and wrongly convicted group.  More people than I ever imagined.  Even one person in this category is too many.  In fighting my own case, I hope to provide a way for others to follow.  The appeal system is very cumbersome and unfriendly and many just give up or never begin the process feeling defeated from the start, but does it have to be that way?  I will continue to write about how the false accusations and wrongful conviction came about in my own case thus increasing awareness.  Once exonerated I will publish a book with far more details than I have shared in this blog.  Even then, that is not enough, there is a need to get involved with those who are fighting this fight, helping in any way that I can.  Checks and balances must be brought to our justice system.  Without that, it will continue.  As I've said before, those that are a party to false arrests and convictions have to be made accountable.   Otherwise, there will be more families disrupted by this insanity.  There must be a movement for reform in our justice system to prevent this miscarriage of justice in the future. 

When I think in terms of  Reverence for Life, there can really be no other way.  It is our responsibility as human beings to stand up for the causes that relate to respect and betterment of fellow humans and for our living earth....be that in the treatment of autism or the healing of those incarcerated or the many other causes that effect each of our lives.  One has to ask, what touches my heart?  How can I help?  How can we improve the quality of our lives and others' right now?  When we leave this world, don't we want to leave it a better place for our kids and all those that follow?  I know I do!

AND...The Parents Spoke

Following my indictment and subsequent move back to Texas I was having a very difficult time finding work.  As you saw in an earlier blog I was being encouraged by my Internet "team" to interview, tell very little and get on with supporting my family.  The arrest record was out there and I found I needed to be totally honest with anybody who was a potential employer. 

After much brainstorming with my "team" it occurred to me I could restart our Speaking Series and turn it into a 3-day training workshop for parents and educators interested in this type of program for their children with autism and charge a fee.  I had a good friend who developed a website for this new entity based on our experience at NOAH.  I had lined up speakers for the first training session.  I had over three hundred mail-outs ready to go.

The new training organization was called "Re-Emerge.com" after the children.  For these children appear to be born normal, have normal development for a time and then within the first year start to withdrawal.  Many of the parents actually have videos capturing this change.  They thought they were filming their child's development but soon came to find the child began disconnecting and eventually became enveloped in their own exclusive world.  As a parent it is rather shocking to watch and find you have no power to stop it.  The program we used in NOAH, and prior to that a home-based program for my son, Nate, actually brought that child back from his/her exclusive world, through very intense one-on-one, interactive, exciting and encouraging methods. Thus, the name "Re-Emerge".  My friend and I started the development of Re-Emerge.com in February 2005 and launched the website in April 2005.  The site described what our program looked like at The NOAH Project (including pictures), then detailed the agenda for the first three day training workshop and the biographies of the many professionals presenting in the workshop.  The Re-Emerge website brought a lot of attention and apparently some controversy with the courts.

On April 28, 2005 I had a hearing at the court to discuss the end of my first year bond and to begin the PR (Personal Recognizance) bond due to my indigent status plus meet my court appointed attorney.  The prosecutors already had word of this new business and website I was starting as I was court ordered to cease all such activity.  The PR bond required me to take the website down immediately and do no business on the Internet.  I was told I could not do these training sessions.  When I asked my newly assigned attorney why not?  He, who had my case for all of one day, said so I would not be allowed to "defraud any more parents."  I just couldn't believe my ears.  The parents were not complaining about the school, they had seen only progress with their kids.  In fact, very significant progress.

Almost two years earlier, when I was first notified my client could no longer fund the school, I had called an emergency meeting that very evening with many of the parents, the Board members and a small group of business consultants.  Those parents rallied to keep The NOAH Project open.  We brainstormed that first night we met as to what we could do in the short term.  Several of us left with specific assignments and meetings to initiate with other community leaders and foundations.  We met again a couple weeks later, regarding updates on progress and how best to continue our efforts.  In the month of October we gave it everything we had to keep from closing that school.  Not one parent left that school feeling defrauded!  Disappointed - YES!   We were all disappointed, but defrauded - NO!  Just did not happen. 

My attorney never brought those meetings up in the course of my trial.  He "saved" the parents testimonies for the sentencing phase.  He always told me that was how he was going to do it - use them as character references once I was convicted.  You see, he never planned to win the trial, didn't believe he could (being a typical public defender - just wanted me to plea) and therefore he didn't really prepare.  When my husband and I questioned the public defender's commitment to my case, he just shrugged and said it would be an easy appeal.

Here are a few of the testimonies from the parents of the school.  Keep in mind these testimonies were given almost four years following the school's closure:

Ms. Bell:  I chose the NOAH Project because Audrey White was providing a full treatment for the child, not just an educational, but also for parents which is huge.  There is - the suicidal rate for parents with autistic kids is high and divorce rate is high so training for the parents is very important.  Because she provided a special diet which most these children need - special food not like what is being provided for in the public school arena or any other public school or private school that was around.  And the one-on-one attention and treatment intensity that she was providing for my daughter in the program was unlike any other.  And so it was all encompassing, treat the whole child type of program.  The program (also) changed my life more than it probably did my daughter's because, you know, I didn't know how to work with my child, I didn't know the attitudes that the program taught and I wasn't positive.  I was negative, angry, bitter and everything just because of ...one part of ignorance, other reasons for lack of training, so the training that the program ...that Audrey provided was life changing.

Regarding the school closing Ms. Bell said: It was devastating.  It was sad.  But, you know, Audrey didn't stop just because the school closed.  She didn't stop supporting us as parents to help our children.  Her help continued on as long as she could.  And so what we were able to do was take a couple teachers that worked with my child from The NOAH Project and bring them into our home and continue the same program in our house.

Then Ms. Bell described the effect The NOAH Project had on the people that worked there:  The gal that worked with my child wasn't even a teacher certified for special needs, but because of the opportunity Audrey provided to these people that worked there, they were inspired to go and get their (special ed) teacher certificate.  Many of them were therapists.  They went on to be special ed teachers, Highland Park, Plano, McKinney, Garland and so now these people were trained from the program that Audrey provided in a way that the public school can't even begin to train its people.  And so now they're out there helping other children that are not as fortunate as my daughter was to go to The NOAH Project.

Mr. Atkins:  Well, Audrey's school...yes. Audrey's school was based on a methodology which was developed at a place in Massachusetts.... and you know, what happened was that interaction and that connection with the child ended up bringing the child out of his shell over time.  Its not a fast process, but at least there was hope.  Here was a program that didn't cap what our child's progress was going to be.  Here was a program that didn't deter him from being who he was at the time, but also encouraged him, you know to progress at the pace he wanted to progress.  He was only there for two months, maybe two and a half, but in two months went from completely non-verbal and not being able to interact with his siblings, not being able to communicate, and at the end of it his vocabulary had already started to blossom.  Now he wasn't completing sentences but he was making requests.  he was able to develop words like yes, no, uh-huh and huh-uh as some simple communications that a child has already mastered at 12 - 13 months, well our son was three, and we hadn't been successful in getting him to master that.  And introducing this new approach already began to break down some of those walls and introduce those new communication tools with him.  And he was giving us eye contact where that wasn't possible before, and really put on a path that we have continued to follow to this day with him.  And so the benefit of those two and a half months, in my opinion, reaches far beyond the time that he was at that school.

Mrs. Atkins:  My son was non verbal and didn't know who we were.  And by The NOAH Project and having the therapy, he began to speak and say "MAMA" for the first time after like maybe six weeks, which was more than I could have ever wanted or knew that I could have from him.

Mrs. West:  Well I have to say amazing progress, not only in him (her son), but just observing other children.  And that was why I so wanted that program after working there for two weeks and seeing the amazing results and just the children connecting.  I just knew that was the program I wanted for me (and my son).  My child has made great strides with the program.  And not only in his life, in our lives too.

Mr. Foley:  The individual, isolated one-on-one therapy, with individual facilitators.  That is what he (my son) needed.  Like I said it was a clean environment with no distractions, one room that was his.  You had viewing glass where you (as a parent) could go in at any time.  I would go in there, on my lunches and things like that, and watch and observe.  That is what I liked about it, the individual one-on-one, which is what a child with autism needs.  You started to get more eye contact and more reactions from him.  An autistic child tends to concentrate on the peripheral, not on the subject or the conversation.  And we started to notice improvement that because, and that was mainly because of the ...It was intense one-on-one therapy.  It was several hours a day, five days a week.

How much of a difference would these testimonies have made during the actual trial?  Another pertinent piece that was left out of the trial was that I continued to work with a group of business consultants to get the school reorganized and reopened.  We sent out reorganization investor packages to major corporations connected to the business consultants that December 2003.  These are not actions a thief would take.  Yet even then, given the above testimonies, the prosecutor told the jury that I traumatized the parents and kids of The NOAH Project.  How do prosecutors get away with these sorts of statements?  She also told the jury I "did it" because I was aspiring to be the "Queen of Autism" while she stood in front of me at the defendant table pointing at me, with her voice raised to the rafters.  Why do we allow such false courtroom drama?  We swear to tell the truth, why doesn't the prosecutor do likewise?

If you could have only seen me back in the day...I was working two full time jobs, one my financial business and two, as volunteer Director of NOAH.  I was hardly the picture of a queen, more like a frazzled mom, over-committed and working around the clock.  Did I want great things for me?  That was never what this was about...it was to help a few families and their children and hopefully be a part of a new movement in the treatment of our kiddos....a more holistic approach, treating all aspects of the child, including the most important relations in their lives...their parents.  Nobody loves these kids more than their parents, nor will there be any greater lifetime advocates for these special kids than the parents.  Growing that healthy relationship is absolutely the key to our special childrens' developmental success. 

Further, this program did not belong to me.  I didn't create it.  I only coordinated the pieces, where it had been a home-based program before, we brought it to a school setting, so it could be more scientifically documented on its way to becoming mainstreamed.  It was simply an attitude, a set of beliefs and methodologies.  Had it continued, the successes would have gone to the credit of its originators, we had a written agreement which set all that out.  There is the truth of it...more of what the jury never heard before convicting me.

The Momentum of NOAH

I promise to make this short.  I have been lamenting on The NOAH Project and the momentum it gained in our community.  Autism and its treatment is still getting a fair amount of media because autism is still a mystery and has become quite prevalent among our children.  So much so that I believe every person in this country knows at least one family dealing with this phenomenon.  

The NOAH Project speaking series addressed so many of the challenges faced by the families of children with autism.  Following are some of the speaking topics and brief descriptions that were a part of our Speaking Series which was held in the Plano Centre.  We had as many as almost 500 people show up from around the metroplex.  Those attending were teachers, therapists, parents and caregivers of children with autism and other special needs.  The passion I felt to help these children and their families just seemed infinite.  After so much suppression by the legal system in this fabricated case against me, I am beginning to finally feel regenerated, thanks to a recent visit with my dear friend, Dorothy, who helped me start this school years ago.  Rather we have another school or not I can sure write about it and finish the book I started.

Next are some pictures of a few of the amazing people who attended and community leaders that helped:

Many of the kids represented by the adults attending in the above pictures are young adults now.  Perhaps its time to focus my energies on providing a meaningful program for the adults.  This first large generation of affected kids (from the 90's) are giving us a new challenge...never have we had so many special needs adults at a time while mental health funds across the nation are being cut.  The times call for us to be especially creative, so our grown up kids can continue to learn and be a part of society in the best way.

Nothing Hidden

Today I will share with you some of the newspaper articles published while The NOAH Project was being planned and built.  There was never an attempt to hide the school.  As one of my early attorney's said...(1) you don't have the profile of a thief and (2) all the money is accounted for down to the penny and (3) nothing was ever hidden.  Significant facts (never mentioned in the trial)  all screaming: "AUTHORIZED"!  "APPROVED"!  "LEGITIMATE"!

These first two articles were printed in the Plano Star Courier and were pertaining to the School and our Speaking Series:

This next article was in the Metro Section of the Dallas Morning News once construction commenced:





This article was brought to my attention by my ex-client, I didn't know when it would be published and he happened to see it before I did.   Yet, this is the man who said in his deposition he had no prior knowledge of the school.  These articles do not reflect the actions of someone who is trying to hide something.  All of this was not allowed in the trial because of the Motion in Limine.

A TIMELINE IS IN ORDER!

By now you know the trial and all that led up to it was a travesty of justice.  It seems it is as good a time as any to set out a timeline showing the events I have shared and adding a few illuminating details.

• December 1999  Non-profit corp ("The Noah School Project, Inc.") was filed with the state of Texas.
• 2000 - 2002  Provided a free to the public - Speaking Series while researching the market plus best treatments and strategy.  Training for eventual school was on-going at my home.
• January 2001  Filed application for 501(c)3 - Federal Non-Profit Determination.
• October 2001  Received Non-Profit status from IRS and began search for appropriate school site.
• April 2002  Signed lease for school.
• April - June 2002  Obtained approval from city to build out special purposes school.
• June 2002  Began construction.
• October 2002  Construction completed, school opened.  Client's/contributor's divorce process commenced.
• November 24,2002  CBS aired The NOAH Project segment on Evening News (national coverage).
• December 2002  Meeting with client's divorce attorneys to determine what information and schedules I would need to provide.
• January 2003  After receiving the December 31, 2002 financials on a timely basis my client's wife called informing me she was going to "bust" his Separate Property and apologizes for all the extra work that would cause me, knowing I was also busy with NOAH.  The details of all Separate Property transactions plus bank/brokerage statements had to be reported from inception (1988).  In the case of investment in real estate development deals - walk forward increases on both cash and tax basis, plus all supporting documents of the legal entities and their transactions.
• January - October 2003  Continued to work for clients, plus direct the school.  Repeatedly asked client for 2nd Separate Property Partition so I could make needed adjustments to allocations based on effective date of partition.  Client never actually allowed me to have the signed partition (or even a copy as support in the accounting records).  This was very unusual and created an error in allocations.
• July 2003  Called to a meeting with my client and his divorce attorney.  The attorney reviewed with me everything I knew about my client's two partitions to create Separate Property and all activity since inception, asking me to diagram on a board in the conference room.  He told me to stop sending things directly to wife's attorney but send everything to him from that point on.
• July or August 2003  Client says this is when he found out about "theft" according to his deposition in the civil suit.
• August 2003  Client tells me of threatened litigation regarding his collaborative divorce.
• August 2003  Business trip to Washington DC to meet with NIH regarding research grant for NOAH.
• September 2003  Meetings with client's business partner to discuss recasting of client's contributions to debt. This was to help him with his divorce issues.  Treating his contributions as a start-up cost that could be recouped through NIH research grant funding.  He had me prepare several amortization schedules, varying the term and rate, saying the client would review and decide which terms he wanted.
• October 1, 2003  Conference call with client and his business partner saying he could no longer fund NOAH as he was in trouble with his divorce.  They gave me the choice to continue with NOAH (either keep it going or reorganize it) or go back full time with them and let NOAH close for good.  I chose to stay with NOAH and agreed to a 3 - 4 week transition period.  I was given a list of work priorities to do during the transition period.  There was a parent training meeting scheduled for that evening.  I canceled the training and called an emergency meeting of key parents, Board members and business consultant group.  The main topic was how do we keep the school open in the short term.  Many of us left that meeting with assignments.
• October 2003  Transitional meetings with client's business partner throughout the month.   
• October 3, 2003  Clients had their corporate controller rent a U-Haul (in his own name) and along with another business associate pick up their file cabinets and oldest files from my garage at 7:00am.  Later that day I had my first transitional meeting with client's business partner, at which time he instructed me to provide a resignation letter, which I did.  Parts of that resignation letter were recovered from computer but date at top of letter was removed as were my words of gratitude for all the years of working for them.  Did a dead battery pick those things to delete?
• October 7, 2003  At trial (2007) Contributor testified this is the date he found out about "theft" and froze his personal accounts.  In contrast to Contributor's deposition saying July or August.  In further contrast to police report and statement provided by Contributor's business partner saying "some time in October".  You'd think their "memory" would have been best for the police report but instead the exact date comes four years later in my trial.  Curious?
• October 11, 2003  Date of contrived confession.  Not found in the computer, but a letter I wrote on that date to Reese Technology, saying just the opposite was recovered from the computer. 
• October 15, 2003  Meeting with client's business partner to go over their personal tax returns.  At this transitional meeting I was asked to explain all exposure items of client's divorce.  For which I named three major issues  related to the 2nd Separate Property Partition of which I was further questioned about each.  In addition I named two other items having explosive potential in the divorce proceedings.
• October 15, 2003  Follow up meeting with key parents, Board members and business consultants to communicate our progress on search for emergency funding, meetings with local foundations, timing of payables and a brainstorming of what else we could do.
• October 25, 2003  Meeting with Contributor's business partner to go over strategy regarding meeting with Texas Tech and Reese Technology in Lubbock.  The Lubbock trip was to discuss emergency funding, moving the school and families to Lubbock and the purchase of the NOAH assets and transfer to Lubbock.  I was instructed to bring that list of NOAH assets to the meeting for review by the Contributor's business partner.  He kept a copy.
• October 26, 2003  That evening flew to Lubbock with a business consultant for meeting next day as referenced above. 
• October 27, 2003  Meetings all day in Lubbock.  At the end of day it was determined they could not fund fast enough to keep The NOAH Project open in Plano or move the school and families to Lubbock.  Their money would not be available for about nine months.  So we knew on our flight home that we would need to close the school the next day in order to cover payroll and most of accounts payable with remaining money in operating account.
• October 28, 2003  The last day of school for The NOAH Project.  At end of day we had a joint meeting with parents and staff so they could more easily transition their children's programs to their homes, setting up on-going work for employees as they left NOAH.  All parents were called during the day (prior to the meeting) to tell them what was decided about the school and to prepare them to move programs to home setting.
• October 29, 2003  The NOAH Project files were packed, desks cleared out, preparing for the furniture and equipment move the next day to Contributor's storage as they were going to keep assets  for us while we worked on reorganizing the school with new funding.  Many of us, including NOAH friends worked late into the night.
• October 30, 2003  The Contributor's business partner showed up with four of the largest commercial moving vans of a major moving company along with their moving professionals.  They worked from 8 in the morning to almost 10 at night.  Now tell me that was only $20,000 of assets as he testified in my trial!  He probably spent $20,000 on the move itself!  The same night I received a call at home from insurance agency, partially owned by Contributor.  They were trying to get me to extend the Director's & Officer's policy for which I did not approve.  Although, they chose to go ahead and extend it and pay for it out of agency funds.
• November 2003  Tied up loose ends of school as best I could.  Worked with business consulting group on reorganization, preparing an investment package.  I worked on book about The NOAH Project.  Went to New Mexico for Thanksgiving to be with my family.  My dad had been diagnosed with an aggressive form of cancer earlier that year. I decided to move out there for a few months to be close to my dad while working on book and reorganizing NOAH, plus had to move out of Plano home since I was no longer earning income from clients (now ex-clients).  I had been packing since early October (with help from several friends) knowing I would have to move to a smaller place.
• December 6, 2003  Moved last truckload of furniture - left Plano that evening.  
• December 9, 2003  My parents received call from DPD detective saying I was being charged with theft of money to fund school.  The detective called me back at their home once my dad was able to reach me, my phone wasn't set up yet.
• Remainder of December 2003  Received several calls at my home from detective.  He was always calling me a liar no matter what I said.  I asked him to get the computer, knowing there would be evidence on the computer of correspondence and contribution calls.  Plus documentation on the Contributor's financials statements and supporting schedules regarding contributions.  In addition to bank reconciliations with same information. 

There is the timeline of initial events in a nutshell.  Some nutshell, right?  If you've made it this far, you probably need a break...I know I do.  I have spent the day writing this and it feels as though I've relived it.  I have so many good memories of the school, the creation of the school itself, the kids, their unique personalities and their progress, the parents and their enthusiasm and love for their children, and our staff was extraordinary, an inspiration unto itself.  We taught and ran the school on the 3 E's.  Energy, Excitement and Enthusiasm.  Those were at the center of all we did, we wanted the most for our kids and in the process we received the gift of growth and joy for ourselves.  As I look back I will remember the best and going forward I know I'll get through this.  One thing I forgot to do at the time, but its never too late....that is to give God all the Glory.  That school would have never existed without Him.  He was so very present as we watched the miracles of transformation in each of those special childrens' lives.  I am grateful for the time we all had together and will never regret a moment of it as I continue to work towards clearing my name.

The NOAH Project

The NOAH Project was very different.  It received attention from CBS out of New York before it was even opened.  A reporter, researching autism treatment programs, read our website and insisted on doing a piece on us.  He seemed as anxious to see us finally open in October 2002 as several of the parents were.  Within just a couple weeks after opening the filming crew and reporter came down from New York City.  They spent a day filming us: our students in their program, many of the parents were interviewed and I also answered several questions.  The segment aired nationally on November 24, 2002, between 6:00 and 6:30 PM, with John Roberts as anchor.  As a result of the televised segment with CBS Evening News we had hundreds of calls and were able to create a waiting list of families from around the world who wanted their child to attend.  In fact, we started discussing the build-out of an international school with a local developer (an associate of my clients) who had multi-use land and wanted to develop an entire international community around the school.  Her vision for Dallas was that of becoming an international center for medical research and she felt this would be a great boost with autism ("a medical mystery") on the rise.

It was a long road in the development of this school.  While the vision for the school came in an instant, the work needed to bring it to fruition took some years.  During 1998 and 1999 I did the initial research, wrote articles in local magazines and had meetings with the attorney to get the organization set up and the Board members in place.  In December 1999 The NOAH Project's non-profit Articles of Incorporation were filed with the State of Texas. Following that filing we (the initial Board members) had brainstorming meetings, did market research and strategy planning, plus provided a free public speaking series.  The attendance at the speaking series was sometimes as high as 500 people.  Its purpose was to provide families, educators and therapists with an alternative way of working with our special kids, in addition to teaching about special nutritional and diet needs for these children and special therapies such as Auditory Integration Training.  We built community in the Dallas/Fort Worth area, a place for sharing ideas, discussing challenges, supporting one another and constructing the most positive attitudes and beliefs about our children. 

The Federal non-profit status, called a 501(c)3, was approved by the Internal Revenue Service in October 2001.  The man who anonymously contributed to the school and made it all possible was named in the application for the 501(c)3 as the major contributor. The determination from IRS and his willingness to contribute allowed us to move forward with the school, seeking an appropriate site.  It was another year, October 2002, before the building was completed and the school opened.  The building specifications were extensive and considered "special-use" as all the childrens' individual play/work rooms were sound-proofed, every two rooms shared a bathroom and all rooms were monitored constantly.  Each child's room also had an observation room attached and outside of every two rooms was a computer station for the recording of each session with the child.  The security system was state of the art because these kids are known as escape artist, even under the best of supervision.

Because of the one-on-one method of working with each child and the intense training and feedback required for each child facilitator/teacher it was a costly program.  We knew this and budgeted for this from the start.  The program included meeting with each child's parents every two weeks, goal setting meetings every week (the children were progressing very rapidly) and constant feedback sessions to the facilitators as well as the parents if they were wanting to be trained so as to continue the program at home in the evenings and on the weekends.  The annual cost per child to run their program was $100,000.  We decided on an annual tuition of $20,000 with the remainder to be absorbed by contributions initially, then research grants, foundations and additional individual contributions once up, running and observable.  It was the belief of the major contributor that NIH, universities and foundations would best be able to understand our program and the differences from the public school system if they could actually observe it in progress.  Thus the order of the funding priorities was set and the business plan in place and well documented.

I wanted you to have a good picture of the school and the program before getting into the details of my case and the drawing of time lines and events.  This is something the jury was not allowed because of the Motion in Limine which did not allow us to talk about the school, the children, their progress or ANY "bad acts" of the two men who falsely accused me, including the bad act of falsely accusing me!!  The prosecution filed this 10 days before trial....that Motion guaranteed the prosecution a win for many reasons which I will discuss further in future blogs.

Take a tour of The NOAH Project below....

Child's program, she is looking in one way mirror at herself

Child's program

Child's program, great eye contact, a great invitation to our world!!

Child's program

Child's program - the best way to make that connection is to wholeheartedly join.  When we join they are no longer in their world alone. They are not forced or told to look at us, we are positioned to get eye contact and we make sure that eye contact (sometimes just fleeting) is the most welcoming and non-judgemental connection.  We never move against a child but go with them.

Gymnasium

Observation room, outside each child's work/playroom, with one-way mirror looking into room

Monitor room, 2 people watching all rooms all the time, rotate personnel every hour to stay fresh

Computer station for recording session's data outside child's room

Children's work/playrooms on both sides of hallway, computer station outside. The purple rooms are the observation rooms, the shorter cubicles are the computer stations, and the child's rooms are just beyond (attached to) the observation rooms. All sound proofed so as to quiet their environment.

My Nate working with teacher at computer - increased his speech

My Nate walking with a teacher, good eye contact, trusting relationship

     

THE NEW YEAR IS HERE!!

It's time!  It's time to get this case done...it has now lasted over seven years.  I'm sure all of you have outstanding things that need to get finished.  Join me in resolving to just get it done this year.  Now is the time.  Get it done and move on.  I think that is what I want most, to just move on with my life.  It's hard to believe two men and their lies could effect so many lives.  It changed the events and direction of my life forever. It has effected all those who are close to me, most especially my two boys, my husband, my mom and sister and all those who have helped my family and I  in so many different ways.  And I can't forget the negative influence it had on my dad's deteriorating health before he died.  You know it had to have effected all those who falsely testified, and all the others who were drawn into the scheme one way or another....that number is far greater than the few who lied on the stand.

One of the things I think about the most though is how it impacted the kids (and their families) who attended The NOAH Project.  Many of you do not know how this all started.  I will tell you. 

I developed, along with a core group of Board members, a special school for children with autism, which was designed to eventually include kids with ADD and ADHD as well as other learning differences.  The school was named The NOAH Project.  It incorporated the best therapies and methodologies, including special gluten and casein-free diet and nutritional intervention.   One man, Eric Williams, the Director of Reese Technology of Lubbock, Texas testified it was a state of the art [school/program], he had seen nothing else like it any where in the world.  He described it as in a class all its own.  We took a program that had always been home-based and put it into a school setting.  The program results had always been reported in an anecdotal way.  We were changing that by recording the details of every session in computers outside each child's play/work room and accumulating that data for research.  We were pursuing research grants with NIH (National Institute of Health), in partnership with several Texas universities.  With regard to the universities, talks and plans had progressed furthest with Texas Tech University (Special Ed) and Reese Technology in Lubbock, but we were also in discussions with University of Texas - Austin (Special Ed) as well as University of Texas - Southwest Medical School in Dallas (Child Psychiatric Dept) and had just begun talking to medical people at Baylor in Dallas. 

Everybody was impressed with what they saw at the school and the initial progress of all children who attended the school.  Children who had never talked in their life (even the 10 -12 year olds) were now speaking in meaningful phrases and occasional sentences.  All the children were making progress that was believed would never happen....connecting in ways that previously seemed impossible...calling out Mom and Dad's name for the first time, making eye contact, playing interactive games, laughing and interacting in the most spontaneous way.  Miracles every single day.  These were kids who previously had been obsessed with the most rigid of routines and never chanced even fleeting eye contact, rocking back and forth for hours, flapping their hands, or even screaming for long periods of time with their hands over their ears.  With the program we were able to quiet their environment and be there with them, joining them in their world, in the most unobtrusive way.  Building trust and eventually a bridge over to our world.

I directed this school on a volunteer basis while I continued to do my accounting and finance business.  I had worked with my clients for approximately twenty years.  Originally we all worked together in the Trammell Crow Company, but as they left Crow and started their own companies I worked on a consulting basis for them and their companies.   As an anonymous donor one of those clients agreed to fund the school in its build-out and initial operations while we were securing grants and other charitable contributions.  I also contributed approximately $50,000 each year.  I was surprised when he called me one day and said he could no longer fund due to his divorce.  We scrambled trying to obtain emergency funding while we took the extra time needed to get grants in place.  Parents and board members alike came forward in this endeavor, nobody wanted to see the school close.  We did have to close the school after one year of operations and amazing results just 30 days after the notification from my client.  My clients and I had decided to do a one month transition period (coinciding with that 30  days) where I finished work for them, then continued on with the school, trying to keep it open or reorganize it so we could reopen.

You can imagine my surprise and shock when I received a call from a Dallas police detective, about a month after the closing, saying I was being accused of stealing the money to fund the school.  I immediately told the detective to obtain the computer and its records from my now ex-clients.  He did not do it.  That was the beginning of Dallas County's attempt to hide my innocence at any cost, in favor of the very wealthy and influential men of Dallas County, my ex-clients.

And that is how all this began.  I will continue to blog the details.  I have received the go-ahead from my habeas attorney to "blog-away" with regard to my case.  Everything I am telling you here is part of public records.

At The NOAH Project one of our main beliefs was: A relationship building, intensive, one-on-one, child-led program is a key to opening the doors to emerge from autism.............