Posted on 05/22/2012 9:07:52 AM PDT by shove_it
A Texas high school has recalled its yearbooks after special needs students were described as "mentally retarded" within its pages, angering teachers, students and their parents.
Mesquite High School's yearbooks were initially distributed on Friday, but were recalled by school officials within hours.
"They told the entire class that they have a slight mistake that needs to be fixed," a senior at the school told Fox's KDFW affiliate.
An introduction to the "Special Education" section read, "Some of the disabilities the students in the Special Education Program have are being blind, deaf or non-verbal" and described two students as "both blind and deaf, as well as mentally retarded."
[...]
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
“Yes, Alex ... I’ll take “What is Proof-reading” for $100.
high school is a wasteland.
My daughter worked for a care facility called Heritage House. They are a chain of homes for handicapped residents. When her W2 form came for the taxes, I found out that their real name (from when they were founded 50 or so years before) was and still is The Retarded Corporation.
This must be why Rush called it “high scruel”.
re·tard
verb (used with object)
1. to make slow; delay the development or progress of (an action, process, etc.); hinder or impede.
verb (used without object)
2. to be delayed.
It's only very recently that this has been considered "insulting" or "derogatory" when it is a completely acceptable term. I'm not very PC, as I consider the PC Police to be more concerned about "thought control" than anything else. Mentally Retardation means that an individual is mentally slow or delayed. It doesn't mean they cannot learn, that they are not meaningful individuals. Words mean things - the PC police have shaped this term to mean something that it doesn't.
They ARE at least attempting to protect the disabled students from Hussein’s death masters, especially in Texas.
It’s become a pejorative term, but I remember a time when no stigma was attached and no such label was intended as anything but explanatory and descriptive. “Retard” means “late” which would accurately describe the mental and emotional development of those under this label: i.e. “late” developpers.
Very well said. Many parents of children with Down’s Syndrome and other birth defects object vehemently to this term, but it does need to be understood for what it is. But this is what happens when vocabulary and etymology are no longer studied in school. There is no comprehension of root meanings anymore.
I suppose that they could just extend the descriptions of the individual students outside of the “special needs” section.
For example, Timmy H. is morbidly obese, has problems with personal hygiene, and is dyslexic
Tammy G. has two STDs, weighs 139 lbs, has an anxiety disorder, and has problems with algebra and long division
While the term “mentally retarded” has fallen out of favor the past several years, I think the bigger issue (for those who actually read the article) is at least some of the special needs kids in the school are not what anyone/others would consider mentally retarded.
They probably should. It’s the way most kids will remember them, anyway.
I’m not sure I understand the need to label them anything but students for a yearbook.
Blind, deaf, and retarded?
The real crime was calling them ‘students’, furniture would be more like it.
Lol!!!
Nice.
If that was YOUR child you might feel differently.
My father was a neurosurgeon who visited Vanderbilt’s “birth defects” clinic every week. Of course that term too is too hurtful nowadays. But Daddy as an old doctor still referred to going out to the “Feeble-minded Home” long after it was no longer called such an old-fashioned name.
What happens is that terms like moron, imbecile, and idiot are first used properly but become popular as insults. So the new softer term “mentally retarded” is adopted but that term too became harsh as a popular insult. Today one can be accused of being a “special needs” person so I wonder what the next acceptable term will be to describe those of lower IQ.
That’s one expensive mistake. My son’s yearbook was $65.00 this year.
Think about it, what could they possibly learn? How much should your neighbors have to pay in taxes for that?
It is hard trying to always be politically correct. I can never figure out why “colored people” is not politically correct but “people of color” is. Is “people of retarded” politically correct?
Short Bus Riders?
*duck*
I have a slow hearing disorder. When someone screams at me it takes me five times as long to understand what is being said as someone speaking normally, at normal speed. It’s better to have warning signs that you can read at your own speed. Fer instance, if that were me who was getting bombasted by the teacher, she would have to write on the blackboard, ‘You gonna get your ass arrested for dis’n the president of the United States.’ I would allow all capitol letters though. That way I would know she was screaming. And it would give her something to do with her hands instead of tearing out her hair and choking herself, indicating what she wanted to do to me.
As a matter of fact she founded a Christian School for Downs children and continues to teach there today.
The yearbook staff could have more carefully chosen their words but the term mentally retarded isn't offensive, it is definitive.
“It’s become a pejorative term, but I remember a time when no stigma was attached and no such label was intended as anything but explanatory and descriptive”
Whatever you call the mentally retareded will inevitably be pejorative, since it’ll never be a good thing to be retarded. That won’t stop PC cops from turning over acceptable language every few years, so as to do what political correctness was invented to do: enrich the policians and rent seekers who patronize various PC-protected identity groups.
One day it’s okay to call black people negroes/colored/black, the next day sinful to say anything but “African-American.” One moment everyone calls retards “retarded,” and suddenly those who don’t change within the minute to “mentally challenged” hate retarded people and can be demogogued against at liberty. You don’t see anything wrong with “midget” and use the word without second thought, then are confused and embarrassed when someone yells at you for such insensitivity as not to use the for no reason whatsoever purportedly better term “little person.”
Control the language, control thought.
“I can never figure out why ‘colored people’ is not politically correct but ‘people of color’ is.”
No reason whatsoever, except that “colored” was popular in the past, while “person of color” is more recent. Though at the time used by the well-meaning (also the condescending and pandering, but that’s no different today for any PC-approved terms), “colored” nonetheless had to become unacceptable. First because racists used it, too. More importantly because PC language must change or die.
Someone might tell you “person of color” is better than “colored person” because the former puts the person first, or somesuch nonsense. Don’t listen. “Colored” is wrong for the same reason “African-American” is better than “black,” however tenaciously black clings to life: so that you can use it as a weapon against people who still say it.
What a mighty political tool it would be for us conservatives if suddenly comfotable liberal language mutated into no-no naughty words. For instance, if Obama’s beloved “fairness” sounded to Jane American Idol like “communism.” Oh, the fun we’d have.
So do you call your nephew “furniture”?
It is niggardly not to use the clinically accurate, descriptive term “retarded”.
“What a mighty political tool it would be for us conservatives if suddenly comfotable liberal language mutated into no-no naughty words. For instance, if Obama’s beloved ‘fairness’ sounded to Jane American Idol like ‘communism.’ Oh, the fun we’d have.”
By the way, this has already happened, with less guile than for liberals, as they have more practice. Somewhat recently liberals were asking, “Since when did it become such a bad thing to be liberal?” This was around when the public started associating liberalism with what it actually is: a bad thing. You remember, back when Clinton was talking about the era of Big Government being over.
Well, the lady Clinton and others like her insisted on being called “progressive.” This was presumably partly because of liberalism’s bad name, partly because of their awareness of the paternity of their ideology in the pregressive era. Eventually progressive became a bad word, too, again because it was associated with progressive policies.
That would be pretty much impossible if he were also deaf and blind.
Same issue with “queer”. It means odd or different, or out of line. What else describes sexual attraction of a type which cannot ever naturally produce offspring?
My grandson born with spina bifida has a lot of side effects, but retardation isn’t one of them. He first moved his left leg at 18 mo., and his right at two. Last week, nearly four, he stood up by himself for the first time, then climbed the stairway on his hands and knees for the first time.
He attends a developmental preschool which sends a short bus out to take him to school each day. In a year or two he will take the short bus to public school. Every minute of his life has been a struggle, yet he continues to conquer obstacles. His sweet nature and sense of humor will help him overcome the taunts and bullying that inevitably will come his way. Meanwhile, the other kids on the short bus treat him as a friend.
You invited my response, and I thank you for the chance to share a bit about our “new normal”.
Few are truly ‘black’ and almost none of them have ever been to Africa, much less being born there.
I am very sorry.
So what? Those are human beings, not “furniture”.
“I’m sorta torn on this one. ‘Mentally challenged’ is a little better than ‘mentally retarded’, which is close to calling them ‘retards’. But the PC bell has been rung and it’s too late to unring it IMO.”
While I am not a PC person, there was no need to single out these innocent children because of their unfortunate disabilities.
Very poor taste indeed and gawd-awful.
There was no excuse and or need for that.
Terrible indeed.
What is the purpose of having them in school?
I would assume it was for them to learn. Helen Keller was deaf and blind, and graduated from Radcliffe. You don’t know anything about these kids, except some yearbook blurb, and you’re writing them off.
It’s a disgusting attitude.
I attended a conference of the affairs of the Physically Disabled in Toronto in 1975. Resolutions were put forward. One was to stop using the description 'Crippled Children'. Later this was put to a very middle-class lady at a meeting. She was a person in the charitable field.
She rolled her eyes in mock horror. We would lose half our donations without the words `Crippled Children` she said. What a put down. The fund continues to this day. I will have to check on what percentage of the dollar goes to the kids.
“I would assume it was for them to learn. Helen Keller was deaf and blind, and graduated from Radcliffe.”
But she wasn’t also retarded. Throw that in the mix and there is no reason to waste tax money putting them in school.
“Wouldn’t Negro be more correct?
Few are truly ‘black’”
“Negro” means black, so I don’t see your point.
I see that the dignity of human life means very little to you. Such a shocking statement that I am speechless at its cruelity.
No. But fortunately, if they were your kids, the state would have found you unfit and taken them away long before they reached school age.
From the article: “The yearbooks will be redistributed this week, school officials said, without the offending pages.”
So the treatment of this self inflicted wound by the school administration is to confiscate all the yearbooks and rip out the “offending pages” thereby leaving the “special needs students” out of the yearbooks completely. Sounds about right for public education.
“...confiscate all the yearbooks and rip out the “offending pages””
And this situation was made worse and more insulting.
How truly awful.
Mental Retardation was recently cured - didn’t you know this? With a single stroke of his mighty pen, Obozo eliminated Mental Retardation (through an executive order, no less). Now we are to refer to the status of the mentally retarded as Intellectually Disabled.
Liberal???
Fallen out of favor??? Obozo signed an executive order which eliminates from use the term mental retardation within the medical and education fields. We (in the education field) are now required to refer to mental retardation as "Intellectual Disability". The state of California is presently drafting legislation to do the same thing on a state level.
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