A Twin Cities mom got a big scare this weekend when her 8-year-old son wandered far away from home.

Sarah Curfman’s son, Felix, who has Down syndrome, was playing with his bigger sister Sunday morning, when his mom said he suddenly went missing from his Shakopee, Minnesota, home.

“The panic was very real,” said Curfman.

After Curfman and her husband shouted Felix’s name with no luck, the Scott County Sheriff’s Office was called.

“Luckily the sheriff’s department had way better tools than the two of us to try and find him,” said Curfman.

The sheriff’s office took the search to the air with the help of a heat-detecting drone. Roughly 40 minutes later, Felix was found walking on a frozen creek bed.

“If he had gotten kind of farther up, there was much more open water,” said Curfman.

Thankfully, Felix was fine, returning home after his half-mile trek with just a wet sock and shoe.

The Scott County Sheriff’s Office has been using drones for six years, thanks to donations from local banks and rotary clubs, said Scott County Sheriff Luke Hennen.

The technology was key in significantly cutting down on search time, he said.

“I think easily in a case like this, it could have turned into an hour or two, right, just to get enough fire personnel walking, you know, sweeping through the different areas,” said Hennen.

Curfman is now taking extra precautions with Felix.

“We ordered a ton of air tags in the short term. I ordered a shoe insert that can go in his shoe, a little pin that we’re going to put a sheriff’s badge on that he’ll wear on his body,” said Curfman.  

All as Felix gets a better gasp of boundaries.

“He’s an 8-year-old boy that is probably going to go on more adventures, so we just have to figure out how to keep him safe,” said Curfman.

DFL and Latine community leaders are pushing for the repeal of César Chávez Day in Minnesota after sexual abuse allegations against the late civil rights icon have surfaced.

The New York Times published a report on March 18 detailing several allegations of sexual abuse by Chávez, a farm labor activist, including the sexual abuse of two minor girls and the assault and rape of Dolores Huerta, who led the farmworkers’ movement of the 1960s and ’70s alongside Chávez.

“The farmworker movement has always been bigger and far more important than any one individual,” Huerta, now 95, said in a statement. “Cesar’s actions do not diminish the permanent improvements achieved for farmworkers with the help of thousands of people. We must continue to engage and support our community, which needs advocacy and activism now more than ever.”

State and local leaders have quickly responded, and an effort is underway at the state Capitol to repeal the quickly approaching March 31 “César Chávez Day.”

The House passed a repeal late Monday afternoon. The Senate still have to consider it. It’s not clear whether the state would eventually designate the day with another person’s name or another farmer union-related title.

Rep. María Isa Pérez-Vega, DFL-St. Paul, how authored repeal legislation, said “it was gutting” to read the sexual abuse allegations.

“This legislation to repeal César Chávez Day out of the Minnesota Constitution marks one crucial step in a multi-faceted process. We acknowledge that this is merely the beginning. Constantly, we must advocate for numerous causes, recognizing that a movement transcends individual figures,” she said.

‘Drawing a clear line’

Emilia Gonzalez, executive director of Unidos Minnesota, said the repeal is about “drawing a clear line.”

“Repealing César Chávez Day is about drawing a clear line that no legacy, no matter how powerful, no matter how important, stands above the safety and dignity of our children and our community. We can honor farm workers, we can honor the movement, La Causa. We can honor the struggle of labor rights, but we don’t have to enshrine a single figure in a way that leaves no room for truth, complexity or accountability,” she said.

Rep. Liish Kozlowski, DFL-Duluth, said accountability starts with the repeal of César Chávez Day.

“Our community is showing the nation how to respond to sexual violence and violence in all of its forms,” they said. “We are showing what it means to listen and believe survivors when they break their silence. We believe them, we stand with them, and we hold individuals and institutions accountable.”

A street in St. Paul

Minnesota also has a street named after Chávez in St. Paul, as well as a charter school, Academia César Chávez.

St. Paul Mayor Kaohly Her, who was at the Capitol on Monday, didn’t provide a timeline for when the street name could be changed, but said she’s getting a group of stakeholders and residents together to discuss the issue.

Ramona Arreguín de Rosales, an activist who personally met Chávez and the co-founder of Academia César Chávez, said she has recommended that the Board of Academia César Chávez change the school’s name, but said she does not want to “diminish the good work that the movement has accomplished.”