Rhett Wallace and Cassie Batten leave Epping police station. Photo: Joe Armao A heavily pregnant mother has been taken into police custody and questioned after admitting to using cannabis oil to treat her profoundly disabled three-year-old son's epilepsy. Police seized the treatment, made form a non psychoactive form of cannabis oil, and questioned Cassie Batten of Mernda, north-east of Melbourne at Epping police station on Thursday afternoon. The mother left the station with her partner Rhett Wallace following the questioning. It is understood no charges were laid. Ms Batten declined to comment outside the station, saying "I can't say much at this stage". Advertisement The couple could face charges at a later stage ofpossessing a drug of dependence and introducing a drug of dependence into the body of another. Ms Batten was interviewed by police after featuring in a current affairs program about the use ofa product called Mullaways Cannabinoid Tincture. During an interview on Channel Seven's Sunday Night,Ms Batten said her son Cooper's health had remarkably improveed after the use of the cannabis treatment. Born at 30 weeks, Cooper has endured a catalogue of health issues, among them cerebral palsy, epilepsy, infantile spasms and global delay development. See the … Continue reading →

Rhett Wallace and Cassie Batten leave Epping police station. Photo: Joe Armao A heavily pregnant mother has been taken into police custody and questioned after admitting to using cannabis oil to treat her profoundly disabled three-year-old son's epilepsy. Police seized the treatment, made form a non psychoactive form of cannabis oil, and questioned Cassie Batten of Mernda, north-east of Melbourne at Epping police station on Thursday afternoon. The mother left the station with her partner Rhett Wallace following the questioning. It is understood no charges were laid. Ms Batten declined to comment outside the station, saying "I can't say much at this stage". Advertisement The couple could face charges at a later stage ofpossessing a drug of dependence and introducing a drug of dependence into the body of another. Ms Batten was interviewed by police after featuring in a current affairs program about the use ofa product called Mullaways Cannabinoid Tincture. During an interview on Channel Seven's Sunday Night,Ms Batten said her son Cooper's health had remarkably improveed after the use of the cannabis treatment. Born at 30 weeks, Cooper has endured a catalogue of health issues, among them cerebral palsy, epilepsy, infantile spasms and global delay development. See the … Continue reading →

Future student Dallin Schmutz looks over things as Spectrum Academy, a charter school for students with high-functioning autism, gives a tour of the construction in Pleasant Grove Wednesday, July 9, 2014. The new Pleasant Grove school will serve kindergarten through eighth grades the first year, about 400 students, and continue to add grades until it serves 600 students in K-12. Jeffrey D. Allred, Deseret News PLEASANT GROVE Public school wasn't working and a six-month stretch of home schooling was exhausting, but Jessica Schmutz was determined to find a way to educate her autistic son. "I was looking into starting my own school," Schmutz said Wednesday, as she and her family toured the nearly finished Spectrum Academy in Pleasant Grove. Opening its doors this fall, the accredited charter is responding to a need that the Schmutzes and other Utah County parents brought to their attention years ago a need for free-tuition, consistent specialized education for children on the autism spectrum. The local charter already operates a special autism education school in North Salt Lake and has since 2006, but its elementary and secondary schools are filled to capacity and have hundreds of hopeful families on a waiting list. Even if 9-year-old … Continue reading →

PLEASANT GROVE Public school wasn't working and a 6- month stretch of homeschooling was exhausting, but Jessica Schmutz was determined to find a way to educate her autistic son. "I was looking into starting my own school," Schmutz said Wednesday, as she and her family toured the nearly finished Spectrum Academy in Pleasant Grove. Opening its doors this fall, the accredited charter is responding to a need that the Schmutzes and other Utah County parents brought to their attention years ago a need for free-tuition, consistent specialized education for children on the autism spectrum. The local charter already operates a special autism education school in North Salt Lake and has since 2006, but its elementary and secondary schools are filled to capacity and have hundreds of hopeful families on a waiting list. Even if 9-year-old Dallin Schmutz got in on the lottery selection system, it would have been over an hour drive each direction for the Springville-based family, which is less than convenient for an already stressful situation. "I had an idea of how to help my son learn, but I was expected to wear the hats of teacher, counselor, therapist and mother and so many more," Schmutz said. "I … Continue reading →

RALEIGH, N.C. Several Piedmont families were in Raleigh Wednesday, speaking to lawmakers about a proposed bill requiring insurance companies to cover autism therapies. For parents of childrendealing withautism, it can be $60,000 a year out of pocket for these necessary treatments. Medically prescribed treatments, explained Liz Feld, president of Autism Speaks. Currently, North Carolina insurance companies are not required to cover Applied Behavioral Analysis, or ABA, therapy. Itscalled the golden standard of successful treatment for patients with autism. Feld visited Raleigh from New York to speak with Senators about a measure that originated as HB498 and is now also before the Senate in SB493. It passed the House two years ago and is still waiting for a vote in the state Senate. We need to make sure the insurance companies dont win this fight. Families need to be covered, Feld insisted. She said 37 other states and the District of Columbia have already passed such legislation. Wendy and John Mies are from Greensboro. They were in Raleigh to share their sons story. He was diagnosed two years ago when he was three years old. I had to reinforce the bed he was rocking so hard. He was hurting his back. … Continue reading →