DKos community can be proud of its many progressive achievements in 2014

The triumphant smiles of Doug, Jesse & Catherine Snodgrass at Jesse's high school graduation While reading dsnodgrass's recent diary thanking the Daily Kos community for helping his family, it occurred to me that a lot of great things have been accomplished here over the years.

This diary will list just a few examples of the amazing things you've done. Please tell us in the comments about the ones you remember.

dsnodgrass first wrote about his autistic son being entrapped by undercover cops planted in his son's high school on Feb. 1, 2013. Doug wrote 30 diaries over the next two years keeping us updated as the story was picked up by Rolling Stone and made the subject of a documentary. Doug and his wife Catherine are heroes for taking the system on head first and being instrumental in the banning of undercover drug stings in schools.

Doug's latest update:

GREAT NEWS! Two Dozen Children Will Not Spend the Holidays Behind Bars Because of You—by dsnodgrass

The Riverside Sheriff's Department's annual high school undercover drug sting program has finally been stopped in its tracks. They found no school district that was willing to participate.

Last year, San Diego's similar undercover sting operation went away, and the Los Angeles Unified School District banned these operations before Jesse's arrest, so enormous progress is being made.

The Riverside and San Diego Jump Street programs were halted because what happened in Temecula became a national story, and it happened through Daily Kos. We asked for an army, and the army showed up in orange.

And they showed up in the form of the Drug Policy Alliance, Law Enforcement Against Prohibition, the American Civil Liberties Union, and too many others to list here.

The day will come when undercover drug stings in schools are finally a shameful thing of the past. They will be banned in every school district, in every state, because it is child abuse. And you will be able to say that you ended this child abuse.

As you can see in the photo above, Jesse graduated from his high school even after being set up, arrested and incarcerated to be used as financial fodder for the Temecula Juvenile Detention business. The photo celebrates a strong family that triumphed and shut down a money-making operation that required special needs students to be thrown under the bus. Doug and his family, with the help of our amazing community, steeled themselves to stop this. Many families have been deeply hurt by these policies, but Doug and Catherine halted that. Heroes.

Background links can be found here on this terrible saga that we've watched unfold for nearly two years. Community members here with children on the autism spectrum provided much-needed support to Doug in every one of his diaries.

More below the Big Orange group hug: