A Glimpse into How some Children with Developmental Disabilities are Treated

I know I haven’t posted in a while, but school has been very demanding lately, and I have been focusing on that more. It’s that time ofthe semester again.¶ I wasn’t planning on posting today because I have a lot of homework to catch up on, but I read an article earlier today that shocked me, and because ofthe topic, I figured it would make a good post here.¶ Three years ago, I went to a leadership training camp for people with disabilities. Now, I am on an email list that sends out a lot of stuff about resources for people with developmental disabilities, most of which I don’t need because it doesn’t apply to me. However, sometimes, they send out links to articles about issues relating to people with disabilities, and I read those because they are interesting. That is how I found this article from disabilityscoop.com.¶ The article discusses a case where a mother is claiming that her daughter, who has intellectual disabilities, was locked in a cage during class because she was reportedly a risk to herself and/or others. Click the link above to learn more about the specifics. This accusation is not unheard of in this particular school district, as their seem to have been similar allegations made about other schools in the past.¶ I think this is outrageous. I’m no expert on how to teach kids with developmental disabilities or how to discipline them, but if these claims turn out to be true when the investigation is complete andthe findings revealed, I will be outraged. I got upset just reading the article. I could not believe that anyone could treat another human being in this way, disabled or not.¶ I shouldn’t be so surprised about this because I have heard numerous stories about children with disabilities being mistreated over the years. Most of them, at least the ones I can remember right off the top of my head, involved children with developmental disabilities in particular. This is something that I cannot understand, not because they are developmentally disabled, but because it never really happened to me. I had my own problems, but I was never put through what I would consider to be abuse. I did have a friend, however, who was put through, at the very, very least, some mistreatment.¶ My friend could not speak. I don’t really know what his disability was, but my senior year of high school, I rode the school bus with him. I always joked withthe bus driver and monitor that he liked me because he liked to listen to me sing, and when I started singing, he would turn around and look at me. One ofthe women who would -every get him off the bus would get upset with him because he would make noises to communicate. I understand that it can be disruptive at certain times, but the way she told him to be quiet didn’t seem like merely telling him to not be disruptive; it seemed to me that she was annoyed with him and didn’t want to deal with him. I’m sure if I had to listen to that for 8 hours a day, I would get tired of it, but I don’t think I would take it out on him. I would probably just complain about it to my friends to deal with it if that was what I had to do. What struck me about this was that I had talked to this very woman a number of times because she helped me in chemistry class, and she and I had a lot of good conversations. I guess she just can’t take dealing with people who can’t talk.¶ These stories are part ofthe reason I started this blog. I want to bring awareness to these issues so that they can be a.ressed in areas beyond the disability community. I don’t believe it’s okay to treat anyone as if they are less than human, and this applies to everyone, including people with disabilities, no matter what they may be. For children involved in these issues, my prayers are with you and your families, and for people in charge of teaching these children, I hope you get adequate training to know how to treat these kids. Ignorance of procedures is one thing, but then, there are things that are based on common sense, and my common sense tells me that locking a child in a cage is not okay, no matter what their behavior may be. We will see what the investigation finds, and believe me, I will be keeping an eye on this story.