"10 year Boy with Down Syndrome Assaulted by Bus Driver - Abuse of Students with Invisible Disabilities by Educators"

⚠️ CW - Stories on mistreatment and abuse of students with invisible disabilities in schools across the country. May be disturbing to some.

Yesterday, a bus driver for the Upper Darby school district in Pennsylvania, was charged with assault, unlawful restraint, false imprisonment, and endangering the welfare of a child.

Juliet Pratt was captured on surveillance cameras, duct taping the a student with Downs Syndrome around the ankles and chest to restrain him. The footage also show the child, who was already in a safety harness, caused no disturbance and remained in his seat. Regardless,  nothing warrants this kind of abusive behavior to people with invisible disabilities, especially by someone involved in child education. The March 8th incident was not the only. The bus driver admitted doing this appalling act to the child, at least one other time. Pratt cut the tape restraints with a seat belt cutter to free the boy upon arrival at the school.

There seems to be no mention of charges related to disability protectections in news reports. Has she done this to others? Would she have done this if the child did not have a disability? If Ms. Pratt singled the child out for this treatment because of any disability related reason, (ie - thinking she could get away with it because of the boy's DS), authorities may want to consider this an ableist hate crime.

Unfortunately, this problem is not uncommon. In some places, the techniques used are legal, bringing harm to many students with invisible disabilities. In Virginia, a 10 year old autistic boy, had the "bones in his hand and foot crushed" by an educator. The injuries were caused by a staff member who was isolating and confining the child, in what was called the "scream room".

Many reports of similar abuses have surfaced in Connecticut schools as well. In one case, a second grader with ADHD was held down, and locked in confinement after a manifestation of symptoms. Aside from the mental and emotional wounds caused, just as in many other cases, the child suffered physically injury. According to the story linked below, students have been restrained and isolated "thousands of times causing dozens of injuries" in Connecticut schools. This hardly sounds like accommodation and community intergration.

Then, there's Xavier Hernandez, who died as a result if being held down and restained by multiple staff members at "Boulevard Heights" school for "students with disabilities" in Texas.

These are the people entrusted with the job of shaping young minds? What lesson does this type of behavior teach other students about interacting with people with invisible disabilities; that they should be restrained, isolated and subjected to physical and mental damage? Considering these, and many other such acts, it seems many educators could use a lesson on understanding and accommodation of persons with invisible disabilities.

© OutOfExile_IDR - Invisible Disability Rights

PA Bus Driver:
https://www.phillyvoice.com/school-bus-driver-duct-tape-upper-darby-student-delaware-county/

https://www.nbcphiladelphia.com/news/local/bus-driver-accused-of-duct-taping-10-year-old-boy-on-bus/3575865/

Boy with autism in Virginia:
https://www.propublica.org/article/schools-restraints-seclusions

Girl with ADHD and other abuse in Connecticut:
https://www.ctinsider.com/news/article/connecticut-schools-restraint-seclusion-injuries-17474991.php

Xavier Hernandez death from a disability standpoint:
https://neuroclastic.com/xavier-hernandez-fort-worth-autism-restraint-death/#content

Hernandez - Death by medication and restraint:
https://www.star-telegram.com/news/local/crossroads-lab/article253421369.html

Image courtesy of: https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/young-disabled-students-shackled-misbehaving-lawsuit-claims-n403421

#Education #ActuallyAutistic #ADHA #PTSD #CPSTD #ChildEducation #abuse #advocacy #disability #InvisibleDisability #TBI #InvisibleDisabilityRights #DownSyndrome #BrainInjury #EndAbleism #AbleistHateCrime #accommodation #CommunityIntergration #stigmatude #TearDownTheWall
#DOE #action #DepartmentOfEducation

@actuallyautistic @disabilityjustice @disability

International Women’s Day Hero of Invisible Disability Rights – Elaine Wilson:

In celebration of International Women's Day, OutOfExile_IDR honors Elaine Wilson, champion of invisible disability rights and the Olmstead Act.  It seems germane, as March is also Developmental Disabilities Month.

During Martin Luther King week, I posted about Lois Curtis, a champion for Invisible Disability Rights (link below).  Lois, togather with another woman, Elaine Wilson, fought all the way to the US Supreme Court (SCOTUS) for the right to live in the community, rather than being institutionalized.  Fighting courageously for their freedom, they won the right to freedom for all people with invisible disabilities.  The case is often refered to as the “Brown v. Board of Education” for people with (Invisible) disabilities.

Excerpt below & image of Elaine from:
https://www.olmsteadrights.org/iamolmstead/history/

[“Elaine Wilson became seriously ill when she was one years old. She was hospitalized with a raging fever and it was unclear whether she would survive... When the fever finally broke and Elaine was …sent home, ….Elaine had lost some of her early motor function abilities, such as crawling or even sitting up by herself. The doctors assured Elaine's mother that (it) was only a lingering effect of the illness…. Elaine eventually did recover, but very slowly”.[]

In school, Elaine lagged behind other students having difficulties with focus and learning , eventually being diagnosed with an Acquired Brain Injury (ABI) attributed to the prolonged high fever as an infant.  Likley, this was the correct diagnosis.

She was reevaluated as a teen upon enrollment at “Gracewood State School and Hospitol” in Georgia.  There, she was diagnosed with an ableist slur containing the “R" word, once used in reference to PEOPLE living with Down Syndrome. Providers believed the only recourse was institutionalization. (I am bitting my tongue and holding back my opinions on the lot of it.)

She would spend about a decade living in institutions (State hospitals) against her will.  Following that, in the 1980s, she would be “ping-ponged" from care homes to hospitals, back and forth for nearly two decades of her life.

“When I was in an institution, I didn't like myself," Elaine says. "I was trapped. . . . I had no hope. I thought, Oh God, Oh God - When am I ever going to leave here?"

Another hero deserving mention on IWD is Sue Jamieson, the Atlanta Legal Aid Society Attorney who brought the case.  Sue and Lois Curtis were joined by co-plaintiff Elaine Wilson, to blaze the path of freedom for countless individuals with disabilities in their wake.

After more than 30 years and 36 psychiatric institutions, at times living homelessness and in varous “care homes", Elaine along with Lois Curtis, were victorious and finally free.

The 1997 ruling by Senior U.S. District Judge Marvin H. Shoob said that “… denying the women a community-based life amounted to segregation of people covered by the Americans With Disabilities Act.”  Judge Shoob later remarked “They were both so articulate” in regard to the testimony of Elaine Wilson and Lois Curitis.

Elaine passed in 2004 at the age of 53 but, will be forever remembered as a Disability Rights Legend for her resilience, strength and courage.  As part of her testimony, she told the court: “When I was in an institution, I felt like I was in a little box and there was no way out”.

Thanks to Elaine Wilson and Lois Curtis, people with invisible disabilities are afforded the right to live in freedom at home, instead of confinement in a “box", cage or institution, merely because of a health issue.  Thanks and honor to Elaine, Lois and Sue on this International Women’s Day.

“The Brave and the Strong” Lois Curitis – OutOfExile_ID:
https://kolektiva.social/@OutOfExile_IDR_Voice/109690867328587920

Elaine’s story continued:
http://www.olmsteadrights.org/iamolmstead/history/item.5405-Elaine_Wilsons_Story_Continued

More on Olmstead and Elaine’s impact:
https://olmsteadrights.wordpress.com/tag/elaine-wilson/

More from disabilityjustice.org:
https://disabilityjustice.org/olmstead-v-lc/

ADA – Community Intergration for Everyone:
https://archive.ada.gov/olmstead/olmstead_about.htm

International Women’s Day Image from:
https://www.desicomments.com/womens-day/international-womens-day-5/

IMAGE CW - (eye contact)
Don't forget the ALT text.

#InternationalWomensDay #ElaineWilson #LoisCurtis #Hero #OlmsteadAct #SueJamieson #SCOTUS #freedom #home #gratitude #CommunityIntergration #DevelopmentalDisabilities #IntellectualDisabilities #BrainInjury #TBI #ABI #AcquiredBrainInjury #MentalHealth #disability #InvisibleDisabilityRights #Hero #DisabilityJustice #EmbraceEquity

@disabilityjustice
@disability

Student with Downs Syndrome Excluded:

A post by @JDS linked an article about an Alabama elementary school girls basketball team that won the championship in a boys league.  Despite defeating all the boys teams they faced enroute to the top, the league refused to award the trophy to the girls team.  As if this example of “exclusion by bigotry” was not enough to get the juices flowing, the article linked another #disability related story that I couldn’t pass up.  So much for easing back into it.

Morgyn Arnold, who lives with down syndrome, worked as the manager of her Junior high school’s cheerleading team. The cheer team at Shoreline Junior High School in Layton, Utah, chose to take two team photos; one with Morgyn and one without.  The photo excluding her is the one used on social media and printed in the yearbook.  Her name was not even mentioned as part of the team.  Despite all of her “hard work and dedication to the team”, she was excluded .

 According to a relative of Morgyn's,  this “was the second time in three years” that she had “been left out of the yearbook” and had been left off the class list of students by the school in the past.  The school issued a statement on social media that was later deleted.  Is that the “swooshing" of brooms I hear?

I personally have had a similar taste of this elixir of exclusion during my time broadcasting for one university hockey team.  Among the numerous discriminatory and ableist acts I experienced, I too was never mentioned or thanked in anyway by that team.  I felt as if I was a dirty secret or that the team that raved about my broadcasts, was ashamed of me. 

The big difference? Down Syndrome is not one of my disabilities and I was not 14 years old like Morgyn.  Even with my experience, I can’t imagine how she must have felt being subjected to these patronizing, demeaning and deplorable ableist acts of exclusion.

In the mind of the offenders, exclusion, discrimination and bigotry doesn’t have to make sense.  Oftentimes, they assume the people living with invisible, developmental or intellectual disabilities to be clueless or lacking reason and intelligence.  In actuality, this type of behavior and “stigmatude” suggests that perpetrators may be lacking in some of these areas.

For this blatant act of ableism and oblivion to inclusion, Community Intergration and equality I have no cheers, only jeers.
“HIP HIP! Shame on you.”

OutOfExile_IDR #InvisibleDisabilityRights

Link to the article and photos: https://www.ibtimes.sg/utah-school-under-fire-after-leaving-student-down-syndrome-out-cheerleading-team-photo-claims-it-58223?utm_source=Internal&utm_medium=article&utm_campaign=related

#EndAbleism #EndBigotry #InvisibleDisabilities #IntellectualDisabilities #DevelopmentalDisabilities #DownSyndrome #CommunityIntergration #inclusion #equality #stigmatude

@disabilityjustice @disability