CLARKSVILLE, TN (CLARKSVILLE NOW) – Crystal Miller had her son for just a few short years. But in that time, Christopher Ryan Miller made an impact not only on his mother, but on everyone he met.
Crystal said her son, who was diagnosed with autism at about age 7, was an amazing person. “I knew from a very young age, he was insightful and loved nature,” she said. “He was just a very kind young man who wanted to make a difference in the world.”
At the age of 19, Chris Miller died when he fell from the back of a pickup truck on campus at Tennessee College of Applied Technology at Paris.
His mother believes it was an intentional act of bullying, the very thing Chris had been fighting against all his life.
Remembering Chris
Crystal recounted the years she spent watching her son grow into a young man who would leave a legacy it was hard to fill. “He walked in circles,” she said. “He kept everything in his backpack, and although it would get heavy, he didn’t care. As long as he had his stuff with him, it was like security.”
Growing up, Chris spent his life on 13 acres in Big Rock, just west of Clarksville. “The year before he passed, I was in the garden and spotted some snake eggs,” she said. “I told him I had to kill them, and he wouldn’t let me. So, he transferred the snake eggs from the front of the property to the back of the property so they would have a better chance of survival.
“He told me God has a purpose for everything and that it wasn’t my place to kill them, that only God could,” she said.
Crystal said Chris was bullied by classmates, and when he was 12 years old, he tried to take his own life.
“That’s when he came up with Captain Spectrum. That was Chris’ alter ego,” she said. “When Chris put on his costume, he went from being a shy introvert to a social butterfly. He would say ‘Hi, I’m Captain Spectrum, and I’m an anti-bullying advocate.'”
And advocate he did.
Pain into power
Chris created a Facebook page featuring Captain Spectrum, a fictional superhero who fought against bullying.
Crystal said when her son was a sophomore in high school, he decided he wanted to try to break the Guiness Book of World Records for the biggest human puzzle piece, which is the symbol for autism.
She said although there weren’t enough people in attendance at the September 2017 event to accomplish that, he still had an amazing day at Austin Peay State University, where people showed up to support Chris in his efforts to bring awareness and stop bullying.
Crystal said while planning the event, he picked up a puzzle piece to demonstrate how he wanted people to line up.
“He made that puzzle piece his own,” she said. “He turned it around to where it looked like an individual. He told me he was more than someone with autism, he was an individual. He said we are all individuals.”
In the fall of 2020, during the height of the pandemic, Chris decided he wanted to go to school. “He really wanted to work for the Tennessee Forestry Service, but he couldn’t get into that school. So, he decided to try go to college for auto collision.”
She said Chris really wanted to learn how to restore a 1957 Chevy Bel Air, which was his favorite car.
A turn for the worse
In the fall of 2020, he enrolled at Tennessee College of Applied Technology at Paris.
“In October, he began to have problems,” she said. “I had addressed it with the school. … The other students would cut him off when he tried to have conversations with them. He told me they talked about things he doesn’t understand.”
Crystal said those with autism have innocent minds. “It made him feel stupid because he didn’t know about these things,” she said.
The bullying got worse. “He had to lay his mask on the table,” she said. “When he came back to get it, other students had set the mask on fire. They wouldn’t let him in class, so he had to go to the car and get another mask, and they locked him out of the classroom. He called me terribly upset that he could not get into the classroom and said his backpack was in there.”
In February 2021, Crystal said, her son was a student at TCAT and when he suffered a fatal injury.
“He was emptying a trash can at the back of the school, and while standing up in the back of the truck, the student driving the truck gunned it,” Crystal said.
Chris fell from the truck, and his skull was fractured; he died days later from his injuries.
The driver, 19-year-old Anthony Lee, of Gleason, Tennessee, was charged with one count of vehicular homicide, one count of reckless homicide, and one count of criminally negligent homicide. Crystal said they are waiting for a trial date.
Carrying on his legacy
Crystal was lost in grief for some time, until Autism Tennessee reached out to her to see if she wanted to be part of their organization.
“It gave me purpose,” she said.
Now she is trying to bring that program to Clarksville. “There is a whole community of people here that need help,” she said. “We had a staff meeting and we realized we have all these resources in Nashville, but Clarksville doesn’t have any of these resources.”
Autism Tennessee created a support group for Clarksville called Spectrum Families of Clarksville. Their next meeting will be Sept. 25 from 2-4 p.m. at the Clarksville-Montgomery County Public Library.
“This has been designed to help connect autistic people and families with each other and resources available in Montgomery, Stewart, Dickson, Robertson and Cheatham counties,” Crystal said.
She said anyone who wants to connect with Autism Tennessee to assist families can contact her.
“If you have a group or organization that helps families dealing with autism, please reach out so we can connect other people to the services,” she said, noting any organizations are encouraged to attend next month’s meeting. One of the newest programs available includes helping Hispanic families.
For more information, call the AutismTN HELPline, 615-270-2077 or email Support@AutismTN.org.
Correction: Chris Miller was a student at TCAT and was not employed there.