Sweet Sam is at it again. You remember Sam McLeod, the 13-year-old girl who at 9 wrote and illustrated “Normal?” to explain that her autistic brother, Tyler, just a year younger, really wasn’t all that different?

Published less than a year ago, “Normal?” was a big hit with the school board as well as with area schools, which now use the book to help typical kids understand their autistic peers. Now Sam is at it again — intervening for her brother who can’t speak for himself. She’s joining her mother, Dawn McLeod, in a battle the mom says she’s not giving up.

The battle, unfortunately, is a common one: reassignment. Tyler McLeod has been in the autistic program at Olive Chapel Elementary for six years now. At age 12, he’s ready to move on. His base school is Salem Middle School in Apex.

McLeod has been taking her son to Salem for the past year, acquainting him with its hallways, teachers and students. But McLeod recently learned that the autistic program at Salem Middle is full, and Tyler has been assigned to East Cary — 11 miles each way from the McLeod home.

Change of any kind is difficult for Tyler. Even something as simple as switching seats at the dinner table is challenging. In fact, Tyler has his chair and if you’re in it, you’re going to hear about it. But Tyler has slowly gotten used to the idea of going to Salem Middle where big sister Sam has been.

Most parents with transfer requests ask to be moved away from a base school. McLeod just wants Tyler to stay where she always thought he’d be. “I have nothing against the other school. It’s just that I was told at the beginning of the year that he would be at Salem Middle so we visited his sister at Salem throughout the year and worked very hard preparing him,” wrote McLeod in her transfer request to the school board.

McLeod hasn’t heard anything yet, but was told her request would likely be denied. When Sam heard this, she put together a petition that has now been signed by more than 400 students from three middle schools and two high schools.

The students signed their names to this: “We are asking that you please allow Tyler McLeod to move up to his base school Salem Middle and stay in our community where we can support him as his friends and peers. We feel he will do better in our community with familiar faces surrounding him. Tyler McLeod should be treated the same as any other student. He is one of us!”

“The kids have more sense than the adults,” said Dawn McLeod. “It’s children standing up for other children. If there is a full class for regular education kids (at a base school), they add a class, not send them miles away to another school, so how is my child different? He deserves the right to go to his base school like everyone else.”

As for Sam, McLeod feels pride that is bittersweet. “She has become a very compassionate and wonderful person,” said McLeod. “At the same time, it makes me sad that in her years she has had to witness the injustices toward him and all special-needs kids in general. I am so proud of all these kids who stepped up to defend Tyler. They are kids who have in one way or another had interactions with him and they couldn’t be more supportive.”

The reassignment issue in general is complicated. But recent changes have caused new problems. We should err on the side of caution not only with school reassignment in general but particularly when uprooting our special-needs children. “I have doctors’ notes saying it would be detrimental to move him away from what he knows and is familiar with, so I will take them to the board when I’m scheduled,” said McLeod.

So mom and daughter continue to work together for Tyler. “I can’t let this one go,” said McLeod. “We’ll keep you posted.”