More than a year after two autistic children drowned in retention ponds near West Chester, a Cincinnati-based nonprofit is renewing its push to fence off the water that took their lives. EmPath For Autism says the deaths of six-year-old Joshua Al-Lateef Jr. and seven-year-old Mar’Dasia Forte, who drowned less than a year apart, show that ponds within easy reach of neighborhoods and schools need physical barriers before another child is lost.
Leslie Williams, founder and board president of EmPath For Autism, has been pressing the issue since June 2025, as reported by FOX19. Williams has said her organization wants legislation that would require fencing or other safety measures, but not around every body of water — just, as she put it according to Spectrum News 1, “the ponds or the bodies of water that children have easy access to.”
Williams has reached out to local and state lawmakers and sent a letter to U.S. Sen. Bernie Moreno asking him to support the proposal, the outlet reports. She has also described, in comments to the station, why retention ponds in particular pose such a danger to kids on the spectrum: “They love the way that it sounds, they love the way that it moves, they love the way that it sparkles and the way that it feels on their body. There is a compression aspect to it,” Williams said, according to WCPO.
Two Children, Two Ponds, Less Than a Year Apart
Joshua Al-Lateef Jr., who had autism and was nonverbal, was found in a neighborhood retention pond near Cincinnati in November 2024, per the same WCPO report. Less than a year later, seven-year-old Mar’Dasia Forte went missing on a Friday morning and was found in the retention pond at Lakota Lakes in West Chester after her brother called 911, according to WLWT’s coverage of the search. The Butler County Coroner’s Office later identified her and ruled her death an accident, WCPO reported separately.
Both children were on the autism spectrum, and both cases followed a similar, devastating pattern: a child wandering from a home or caregiver before being found in nearby water. West Chester Township officials said after Forte’s death that they were working to limit access to ponds near places where children gather. “We are actively in the planning process to ensure that we have proper safety measures in place to control access to those bodies of water near places where children are congregating,” a township official said, as quoted by WLWT.
Why Wandering and Water Are So Dangerous for Kids With Autism
EmPath For Autism says drowning is the leading cause of death for children with autism, a claim the group has made as part of its advocacy push. National organizations have offered figures that underscore the stakes: the National Autism Association has said children on the spectrum are 160 times more likely to die from drowning, per Spectrum News 1’s reporting, while the American Red Cross has called drowning the leading cause of death for children ages 1 to 4. Drowning is also described as the top cause of death for children and adults with autism, according to the same outlet.
The danger is compounded by wandering, a behavior common enough among autistic children that it has become its own safety concern nationally. Separately, Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine appointed Jonisa Cook to the state’s new Missing Persons Working Group, where she has been developing a proposed Joshua Alert system — a notification network modeled on the Amber Alert but tailored to missing children with autism, Spectrum News 1 reported.
A Problem Not Unique to West Chester
The push for pond fencing in Butler County echoes a similar debate playing out in Columbus, where a toddler’s drowning renewed calls for fencing around retention ponds and prompted a city councilman to say tougher safety requirements may be needed, according to 10TV. A separate report from the Columbus Dispatch found that at least 13 children had died from drowning in Columbus retention ponds over the previous 13 years, a toll that has renewed scrutiny of how those man-made water features are regulated across Ohio.
For Williams and EmPath For Autism, the goal remains narrower and more immediate: fencing around the specific ponds that sit closest to where children with autism live, play and wander. The group’s advocacy, ongoing since mid-2025, has centered on reaching lawmakers directly rather than waiting for another tragedy to force the issue.
