#hatter network

This piece was written for HatterNetwork.com.

Every April, millions of people across America participate in the philanthropy event known as Autism Awareness Month. From sharing posts on social media to “lighting it up blue,” people everywhere work tirelessly to make the world aware. Aware of autism, aware of its effects, and aware of how they, the parents and family of people with autism, are affected by it. But there’s one group who seems to be consistently missing from the conversation. Somehow, in all this talk about autism awareness, no one is aware of what people with autism have to say.

Along with Autism Awareness Month comes Autism Speaks, the most recognizable autism charity in the United States. However, although its supporters praise the organization’s “autism awareness” campaigns and grant funding for research efforts, many autistic people believe that their voices are not adequately represented by Autism Speaks, and that the group appears to speak over them rather than speaking for them. From its initial focus on curing people with autism to its systematic exclusion of autistic voices from its own board of directors, Autism Speaks has repeatedly come under fire from the very community it claims to represent.

This piece was written for HatterNetwork.com as a response to a lawsuit against Stetson University by the parents of a deceased student athlete.

Earlier this week, the Daytona Beach News-Journal reported that the family of Nick Blakely is suing Stetson on counts of wrongful death. According to Blakely’s mother, he had informed coaching staff that he was “ill, had shortness of breath, chest tightness, chest pain, rapid heart rate, dizziness, and other signs of fatigue and cardiac issues,” but no medical action was taken. She also claims that Blakely was later bullied into continuing practice on the evening of his death, despite continuing to experience troubling symptoms throughout practice.

Although this revelation is horribly tragic, for now, I’m not here to talk about Nick Blakely. This week, I’d like to look at a similar but distinct issue in the world of professional football, including collegiate teams like Stetson’s. More specifically, I want to talk about concussions, and the NFL’s habit of ignoring science to downplay evidence of their effects.

This piece was written for Skeptical Science Sundays on HatterNetwork.com.

After I heard the news of what happened in South Florida last week, I, like many others, was outraged. I have lived to see a number of incidents like this, and yet it doesn’t seem to get any less horrifying to watch news reports of children not even old enough to drive being killed by some angry dude with an AR-15. Throughout the past few days, my Facebook feed has been filled with calls to action: We can’t let this happen again. Thoughts and prayers aren’t enough. We need change, we need gun control, we need better mental health care, we need armed guards and metal detectors at the entrance to every school in America. Everyone has an opinion on what we can, should, or shouldn’t do to stop tragedies like this from occurring. But whose opinion is right? What can we do?

This piece was written for HatterNetwork.com.

Last Tuesday, Stetson students gathered in droves to celebrate the achievements of our own student researchers. From laser-powered tweezers to the history of stigmas against sweet wine, seniors tackled it all in poster sessions and oral presentations across campus.

Less than a week later, a different kind of showcase was held in the Second Stage Theatre, Stetson’s own Theatre Arts building. Unlike Stetson Showcase, this event did not consist of posters, speeches, or awards banquets. Instead, students of all class levels, majors, and backgrounds showcased their many artistic talents in the biennial Student Directed One-Act Play Festival.

This year’s festival presented five one-act plays directed by students in Dr. McCoy’s Advanced Directing course. Each play was selected, cast, designed, and performed by Stetson’s theatre arts students, plus several student guests from other departments. As I sat down to watch the show not once, not twice, but three times this weekend, I saw Stetson theatre at its best, with stellar work on the part of every student who participated.

This piece was written for Skeptical Science Sundays on HatterNetwork.com

A while ago, I discussed the popular myth that autism is caused by vaccines. The uptick in autism diagnosis over the past few decades has made the disorder an easy target for fearmongering and pseudoscience, and vaccines aren’t the only scapegoats taking the blame. Everything from postpartum depression to intestinal yeast has been cited as a factor in the development of autism, with several niche groups of deluded mothers touting their “miracle cures” for these unproven theories of origin. (For some reason, it’s nearly always the mothers.)

In honor of Autism Awareness Month, let’s raise some awareness by looking at five therapies for autism, the false premises that inspired them, and the real harm they can do to autistic children and adults.

This opinion piece was published on HatterNetwork.com and in The Reporter magazine’s Fall 2017 issue.

In my junior year of college, I did something I thought I’d never do: I participated in sorority recruitment.

My decision to rush was driven by a number of factors, but most of all, I was looking for a family, and I believed that joining a sorority was my ticket to finding that.

Unfortunately, the stars weren’t in my favor: I was dropped from recruitment.

This special report was published on HatterNetwork.com and in The Reporter magazine as part of Skeptical Science Sundays.

In honor of Black History Month, I thought I’d look at one of the biggest perpetrators of pseudoscience throughout history: racists. There’s a lot of science out there related to race in society, and not all of it is truly evidence-based. Let’s examine five popular myths about race that have been debunked by actual science.

This piece was written for Skeptical Science Sundays on HatterNetwork.com.

This piece was a finalist for the Sunshine State Award for Best Student Opinion Column.

The idea of vaccines causing autism wasn’t a topic I originally planned to cover in this column, mostly because I assumed my fellow students would have the common sense to figure this one out on their own. However, after overhearing a conversation in one of my classes, I realized that the misinformation is absolutely out there, and the anti-vaccine movement is still a very real threat. So this week, let’s talk about the “vaccines cause autism” myth: where it came from, why it’s completely ridiculous, and why people believe it anyway.