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DeSantis Signs Purple Alert Bill Into Law

Leon County Judge John Cooper on June 30, 2022, in a screen grab from The Florida Channel.
The Florida Channel
A Purple Alert could be used to help find someone who has certain conditions like an intellectual, developmental, or emotional disability.

If someone with a disability or brain injury goes missing, a Purple Alert could go out to help find them. That’s due to a new law signed by Gov. Ron DeSantis.

If someone with a disability or brain injury goes missing, a Purple Alert could go out to help find them. That’s due to a new law signed by Gov. Ron DeSantis this past week.

Beverly Marshall is from Sebring. She says if a Purple Alert had been in place sooner, her son might still be alive. Her son had a cognitive disability and wandered away from home. He came to a 7-Eleven store but couldn’t ask for help due to his disability.

"He was distraught, and he was crying. He could not ask people for help. He couldn't speak or write. He wandered across the street from that 7-Eleven to a fire station, and he drowned in a pond about 30 feet from that fire station," Marshall says.

Marshall says if a Purple Alert had gone out, someone might have helped her son at the gas station.

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Robbie Gaffney is a recent graduate from Florida State University with degrees in Digital Media Production and Creative Writing. Before working at WFSU, they recorded FSU’s basketball and baseball games for Seminole Productions as well as interned for the PBS Station in Largo, Florida. Robbie loves playing video games such as Shadow of the Colossus, Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask, and Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles. Their other hobbies include sleeping and watching anime.