Anonymous Complaint Letter Sent To El Dorado Hills Family About Their Autistic Daughter

By kncipat on October 23, 2020

Kayla is 6. She has non-verbal autism. Someday she might talk in regular sentences but right now her limited speech revolves around food items that she likes and using an IPad to ask for things.  Sometimes she shrieks and makes what her mom and dad say are her happy noises. Unlike most kids Kayla has no interest in tv or video games. She loves to be outside. That’s what makes her happy. And when she’s happy she can sometimes make loud noises. Those noises believe it or not help center and relax her. Last weekend Kayla’s parents got a letter in the mail from some neighbors (or neighbor). It was not signed. Here’s just part of what that letter said:

“As you may or may not be aware, many of us are being affected by your daughter’s long periods of shrieking throughout the day.”  The letter goes on: “Unfortunately, we are quite disturbed by this as it has a very real impact on our peace and quiet, as well as the enjoyment of our backyards. Many of us are working from home and are on video calls with our clients who can hear this distressing sound. We would be so appreciative if you could try to reduce the length of time and frequency of these episodes so that we may resume some periods of tranquility that we previously enjoyed.” 

As the father of an autistic child there are soooooooo many thoughts I wanted to vocalize but thought it better to reach out to Kayla’s mom Monica. She was on the air with us Friday morning and had this to say:

After hearing Monica talk about her daughter, how she and her husband are trying their best to not only be good parents but also be good neighbors many, many listeners commented on facebook. My favorites were Billy, Scott and their friends who want to have a loud play date in front of the anonymous neighbor’s house (houses), and Melissa who said, “Really? Covid has upended us all and this is what you complain about?” Good point. We also handled a lot of phone calls of support for Monica, her husband Kevin, and Kayla:

Maybe there’s a reason this happened. Maybe we needed a reminder of how important tolerance, empathy and kindness are. It doesn’t a big bank account or any extra effort to be nice. The biggest hope is that the neighbors (or neighbor) who wrote the letter stop and reevaluate their priorities. That they learn from this and become better, more tolerant and kinder people. If that happens then this is a win. In the meantime God Bless you Kayla. Keep playing outside and keep making your happy noises. The best sound in the world is a child’s laughter. 

Monica Newton with daughter Kayla and son Ryan, and her husband Kevin with the same two adorable, happy kids.