Death of Autistic Boy Renews Questions About the Use of Restraint and Seclusion in Schools

May 7, 2025 Guest User

Julie Sikes, in her Newport News, VA apartment, on Wednesday, March 12, 2025, holding her phone with a picture of her son Josh Sikes. *Photo by William Tiernan.*

No one knows what caused 11-year-old Josh Sikes to die last November. But his final moments in a Virginia Beach classroom have led to investigations and renewed questioning over techniques used by Southeastern Cooperative Educational Programs.

Moving toward independence

April 6, 2023 Guest User

On Thanksgiving 2022, Barb Baxter shared a moment with her son, Pete, in the family’s kitchen. Pete, 24, is autistic and has an intellectual disability. He recently moved into a Charlottesville apartment with the steady support and supervision of family and community.

The road to adulthood begins for most when they graduate from high school and move on to a first job or college, to paying bills and living on their own. But for people with cognitive disabilities or autism, leaving high school is a more monumental step, one that will transform their relation to their families and the community that supports them.

That monumental step has been on the minds of Andrew and Barb Baxter, both 57, of Charlottesville, Va. for years. Their 24-year-old son, Peter, is on the autism spectrum and has an intellectual disability.