Helping with chores or packing for Disneyland!

                Way to often I see stories of disabled people treated horribly. Disabled is impaired in a physical sense and they rely on the kindness of others to help them. We all rely on kindness of others in some way to survive this world but when a child or adult has a disability it can be detrimental to daily life.

                What is it that makes people treat someone with a disability so horribly? Maybe a genetic flaw or a difference the devil created just to stir up some pain in the world. Always throws me off when autism is considered a flaw but people who harm others aren’t considered flawed. You hear the stories all the time. Maybe it is a caregiver abusing someone who needs daily help, a child being restrained in an over the top way or verbal abuse from a teacher. Then you have even worse stories of kids being placed in confinement until a parent comes to get them at the end of the day. No one even letting them out to use the bathroom and they end up expressing their feelings the only way they can. Some of those ways are difficult to even mention. I remember a story a while back of a child being placed in a duffel bag in the hallway, and the school backed themselves up on the treatment. It was hard enough to imagine an education system that uses this tactic and then an entire staff that stands behind the tactic is nothing short of insanity taking over like a virus.

                So I have to ask this, if I found my child zipped up in a duffel bag lying in a hallway why on earth would anyone have to fight to defend the moral ground on that? The self control that these parents have is extremely impressive to say the least. It’s easy to read about someone else’s child and move on to the next story but actually being the parent who lives this nightmare would be a totally different story. They are faced with school policies and excuses for why these things are done. No moral policy is ever put into place by the way and typically the policy is so vague it’s hard to battle the moral ground. Maybe parents need to start requesting a moral policy so when it is broken the fight to keep their child safe is not such a difficult one. There really Is no answer to this, even camera’s won’t stop people from causing harm because if they are capable a camera isn’t going to stop them and it that is the only thing keeping them from this being an educator in general is not the line of work they should be in.

                A common mistake made by some many people is looking at someone who is disabled and thinking there is no feeling to them. Thinking they won’t feel pain in there soul, heartache, distrust, and keeping a memory of what was done to them. They can’t always express themselves so they are really a prime target for this kind of treatment.

                Think of it this way…you are 9 with a mind that is actually 5 and you have fought like hell to get to 5. You have had a bad day with no way to talk to anyone about it and your bad day is showing in whatever way you can express it. Even if you could talk about it you’re not sure how you would explain it because you are still trying to understand that social side of people around you. You get mad and maybe act out the only way you can. Now the only adult around is putting you in a duffel bag and zipping it up. You know if you try to get out more trouble will come your way so you wait…..wait for your mom to come. Now imagine you are ok with this because you have had to do this before and like I said you don’t understand the social side of people very well. That’s one reason mom sends you here…to learn social skills. Now you’re crammed in a bag sitting in a hallway, its dark and you can hear things around you. Maybe you shouldn’t have tried to express how you were feeling because the bad day just got so much worse and you know you have to come back tomorrow. Then you hear your mom coming down the hall and now you’re not sure if mom will be mad at you for being bad.  Completely confusing and painful to process in every way possible for a child and I would bet my own life it is never forgotten.

                These are the limits being placed on so many children unable to express themselves and when they do, they learn a disturbing lesson on moral ground and social handicaps that “normal” people are having so much trouble with. This is not lessons anyone should be learning and moral ground makes that pretty clear if a person has one to begin with.

                My son hasn’t started school yet and you could say it is one of my biggest fears yet with his autism. I can only pray we find a great system for him and people who have care for every child they encounter but for so many it's just not the case. This needs to change because duffel bags and broom closets should never be in the same sentence with children unless they are helping with chores or packing for Disneyland.