Wednesday, December 17, 2008

How Do We Deal With Children With Disabilities

I have two questions:
1.When is enough enough?
2.When will the world learn to deal appropriately with those that have disabilities?

I would like you to put yourself in the place of 13-year-old Jonathan King.

You have been diagnosed with "severe depression and ADHD" since kindergarten.

YOU are a TEENAGE BOY!
Your teachers in an effort to control your behavior have been putting you in "time-out".
Your parents think that "time-out" is just a couple of minutes off in a corner away from the rest of the class.

Reality is that "time-out" is in a seclusion room made of concrete that is latched from the outside and only has one small window that has been covered with paper. You have been placed in this room repetitively.

You have now made comments in class that you are suicidal. Your parents have not been notified.

You get the feeling that no one seems to care.

You are placed one more time in the seclusion room. Around your waist is a rope that the teacher has given you to hold your pants up. Life is not working for you at school and no one is helping. It just seems easier to tie a noose and surrender. Nobody will care anyway.

Or will they?

This was the case for young Jonathan King in 2004. They are just now getting around to dealing with this case and in the article in a recent news release from CNN (http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/12/17/seclusion.rooms/index.html)Jonathan's is not the only case. Children all over America are being treated this way.

I understand that disabilities are on the rise and that teachers are trained to teach and not really deal with disabilities but come on there has to be a better way than having our kids hang themselves at school.

I hope that I am not alone on this but I really think that the disabled get an unfair shake.

2 comments:

Susie/Nueva Cantora said...

Jo, this just made me cry. My mom mentioned last night at dinner that autism wasn't recognized as a disability until my brother was 9 or 10. So, they had a hard time finding a place for him when he was 5 or so... and he ended up at a school that did this: "time outs" in a janitors closet, sometimes for hours on end... there was still the drain hole in teh middle of the floor.

Of course, once they found out, they pulled him immediately and the school closed not long after...

The Lovely Wife said...

Susie it made me cry too and it made me MAD to think that to treat another human like this is LEGAL! Im glad your parents were smart enough to pull your brother from that school.