A grateful Holly Robinson Peete praises Dodgers for hiring her son who has autism
The “21 Jump Street” star has spoken out since 2007 about her son's autism diagnosis.
Holly Robinson Peete says she will be forever grateful to the Los Angeles Dodgers for taking a chance on her son who has autism.
“The fact that they employed my son, they hired inclusively, a young man with autism that they gave a chance and he’s been here eight years,” Peete, 58, told People at the Los Angeles Dodgers Foundation Blue Diamond Gala on Thursday. “It’s been a godsend,” she added.
The actress hosted the gala with her husband, retired football player Rodney Peete. As People reports, their son Rodney Peete Jr., 25, (or RJ as he is called) was diagnosed with autism as a child. His devoted mother told the publication that he “didn’t have friends growing up.”
“He has just a whole family around him, outside of his immediate family who supports him,” the actress shared with People at the gala.
Peete said her son is “like an ambassador” at Dodgers Stadium.
“When you come to Dodger Stadium, it’s a family atmosphere. They do the same thing when they go into the community,” Peete told People.
“I love this team,” she said.
Peete and her husband have been married since 1995 and are also parents of RJ’s twin sister Ryan and sons Robinson, 20 and Roman, 18, the Daily Mail reports. The “21 Jump Street” star has spoken out since 2007 about RJ’s autism diagnosis.
“At the time, I didn’t see a lot of people advocating for autism awareness,” Peete told PEOPLE in a 2018 interview, noting that her husband had not always been as open to publicly discussing RJ’s medical condition.
“He thought it was labeling RJ and putting him on blast,” Peete said at the time. “I was this total opposite, I said we have to talk about this, because we have this platform to talk about autism and reach so many others.”
Peete told People in 2007 that at one point, she and her husband invested $500,000 in treatments for RJ.
“Never once did we think about sending him away. I chose a proactive, crazy-mama approach. We are very goal-oriented,” she told the publication at the time.
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