A Foundational Event of "A-NOD"

A Foundational Event from a Grandmother's Perspective regarding A-NOD: By Marcella Betts on January 8th-2022, typed by Diane Thacker, January 31-2025 (Told by Marcella )

My experience with my grandson occurred in my car before the introduction of

A-NOD For Situational Awareness. One day, 2012 or 2013, when my oldest grandson was about 6 or 7 years old, I was driving down Euclid Avenue in Des Moines, Iowa, heading to Merle Hay Mall. He was sitting in the back seat in a booster seat, and I had instructed him to stay buckled up, but he refused to comply.

While I was driving "a little fast down the road," a Des Moines Police Department officer pulled me over, approached my car, and requested my license and insurance. As I was retrieving them, my grandson jumped out of his booster seat, exited the car, and approached the officer, insisting that she "take him to jail right now."

Looking back, I think my grandson acted because I had told him that if he didn't stay buckled up, the officers might talk to him about why he needed the booster seat and possibly "take him down to the station." What happened next was one of the reasons that led me to help my daughter establish what is now A-NOD For Situational Awareness LLC and A-NOD INC.

The Officer started by instructing my grandson to listen to his grandmother and return to his booster seat. Due to his sensory health concerns and other behavioral issues, which the officer was unaware of, he refused. After another attempt to redirect him and asking me to place him in the seat, which was unsuccessful, the Officer issued me a ticket for nearly $200, not for speeding, but because my grandson wouldn't buckle back into his car seat. This said, at the time, I am sure that the Police Officer was just doing her job, the right thing, yet, I also believe that if there had been an A-NOD For Situational Awareness Triangular Decal in my back window of my car, it might have made a difference in the way the Officer approached the situation as well as she may have learned about A-NOD from the training that they have as well as the "training that I could have provided in that scenario to her at the time".

This all said, outcomes are important, and although I think the outcome may have been the same, there is a part of me that doesn't know for sure. Going forward is question and continuing A-NOD helps illuminate the answers.