This story broke my heart when I read it. A 26-year-old man with Down Syndrome died while being escorted out of a movie theater by security guards. The security guard attempted to get the man to leave the movie theater and during his resistance he experienced a "medical emergency," but the altercation was ultimately ruled a homicide. The guards that were involved were placed on administrative leave, however the family's lawyer is concerned "that the Sheriff’s Department has been conducting the investigation into a matter involving its own deputies." The spokeswoman for the deputies announced that the there was a training with interacting with people with "mental health issues," but this training did not include Down Syndrome.
I found some of the comments to this article interesting to think about disability culture: "Why, if this man died a month ago, is it only now that the Sheriff's Department is putting these Deputies on administrative leave for the investigation? As for the training, Downs is not a mental health issue, it is a disability. Mr.Saylor was not mentally ill, he was not bipolar or schizophrenic. There is a huge, and clear, distinction. If the Deputies cannot distinguish the difference, why are they allowed in public to protect the public? Neither a uniform nor badge is an excuse for murder."
"Why does that article imply persons with Down syndrom have mental health issues? Having an intellectual disability does not mean you have mental illness. It could just mean it takes more time to process a situation. Speech impediments are also common in Down syndrome. He might have had difficulty processing the situation after the end of the violent movie and the aggression of the security guards coupled with an inability to communicate this to people unfamiliar with his speech pattern. Absolutely tragic. Not only should LEO get training to distinguish between mental illness and disability but so should the journalist who wrote this article."
This is a sad story for obvious reasons, a life was lost, but it's even more heartbreaking because it didn't have to happen. Even more, is that it seems like because of this man's disability there does seem to be some lack of seriousness that is being taken by the security guards and officials. While maybe everything isn't being fully explained in this article, it seems like the response from the spokesperson is that negligence should be an excuse.
In What is Disability Culture, by Steven Brown, states that "not all of us view our disability as the unmitigated disaster and diminishment that seems expected of us. We know that what hurt, anger and distress we have felt was not generated by the condition itself but by the obstacles and offensive assumptions that society heaps upon it." This was such a powerful line for me in this reading because I think so many of us don't spend a lot of time thinking about what is means to be disabled. It's not something that is an easy topic to talk about. We've seemed to have made it some taboo topic and that only seems to perpetuate the sensitivity and possibly disregard for the subject entirely. Especially when you don't know someone who is necessarily considered disabled, it places you on the outside and it's hard to wrap your head around situations that you can't fathom. It is interesting to me in the comments posted on this article about the writer's own confusion on what it means to have a mental illness versus a mental disability. To be honest, I'm not sure I've ever spent much time differentiating between the two. I feel like we should be spending more time in classrooms learning the difference in addition to learning about appropriate terminology in general because so many of us throw around words that are hurtful without so much as a second thought - not even realizing who it is offending.
I found some of the comments to this article interesting to think about disability culture: "Why, if this man died a month ago, is it only now that the Sheriff's Department is putting these Deputies on administrative leave for the investigation? As for the training, Downs is not a mental health issue, it is a disability. Mr.Saylor was not mentally ill, he was not bipolar or schizophrenic. There is a huge, and clear, distinction. If the Deputies cannot distinguish the difference, why are they allowed in public to protect the public? Neither a uniform nor badge is an excuse for murder."
"Why does that article imply persons with Down syndrom have mental health issues? Having an intellectual disability does not mean you have mental illness. It could just mean it takes more time to process a situation. Speech impediments are also common in Down syndrome. He might have had difficulty processing the situation after the end of the violent movie and the aggression of the security guards coupled with an inability to communicate this to people unfamiliar with his speech pattern. Absolutely tragic. Not only should LEO get training to distinguish between mental illness and disability but so should the journalist who wrote this article."
This is a sad story for obvious reasons, a life was lost, but it's even more heartbreaking because it didn't have to happen. Even more, is that it seems like because of this man's disability there does seem to be some lack of seriousness that is being taken by the security guards and officials. While maybe everything isn't being fully explained in this article, it seems like the response from the spokesperson is that negligence should be an excuse.
In What is Disability Culture, by Steven Brown, states that "not all of us view our disability as the unmitigated disaster and diminishment that seems expected of us. We know that what hurt, anger and distress we have felt was not generated by the condition itself but by the obstacles and offensive assumptions that society heaps upon it." This was such a powerful line for me in this reading because I think so many of us don't spend a lot of time thinking about what is means to be disabled. It's not something that is an easy topic to talk about. We've seemed to have made it some taboo topic and that only seems to perpetuate the sensitivity and possibly disregard for the subject entirely. Especially when you don't know someone who is necessarily considered disabled, it places you on the outside and it's hard to wrap your head around situations that you can't fathom. It is interesting to me in the comments posted on this article about the writer's own confusion on what it means to have a mental illness versus a mental disability. To be honest, I'm not sure I've ever spent much time differentiating between the two. I feel like we should be spending more time in classrooms learning the difference in addition to learning about appropriate terminology in general because so many of us throw around words that are hurtful without so much as a second thought - not even realizing who it is offending.
I had a girl that befriended me back in high school who has a mental disability. At first it was something that has a 15 year old girl that I was initially put off by, because, well, I hadn't been taught much about it. At first it was something that made me uncomfortable, I wasn't sure how I was supposed to act around her, or treat her. Then one day I realized something important and it was so simple - as a person. She is a girl and a person just like anyone else. She likes being involved in school activities, doing arts and crafts, and just chatting. She is happy and healthy - she is just like anyone else.
People's feelings change when life puts them in situations that allow them these insights. However, I don't think that we should have to wait for these situations, we should be actively learning and understanding that having a disability doesn't make you any less of a human being. How do we break this barrier? How do we start making a space for a more open dialogue that allows us insight to what it means to having a disability and how can we do it where we aren't afraid of being offensive?
The last line of this article states that "down syndrome is a genetic, chromosomal disorder first reported by medical authorities in 1866." That's all the information that it felt like sharing about the Down Syndrome. I don't know about you, but if I didn't know what Down Syndrome was this definition certainly did nothing to fix that.
People's feelings change when life puts them in situations that allow them these insights. However, I don't think that we should have to wait for these situations, we should be actively learning and understanding that having a disability doesn't make you any less of a human being. How do we break this barrier? How do we start making a space for a more open dialogue that allows us insight to what it means to having a disability and how can we do it where we aren't afraid of being offensive?
The last line of this article states that "down syndrome is a genetic, chromosomal disorder first reported by medical authorities in 1866." That's all the information that it felt like sharing about the Down Syndrome. I don't know about you, but if I didn't know what Down Syndrome was this definition certainly did nothing to fix that.
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