Teens Crown Disabled Girl Homecoming Queen and Warm Our Hearts (VIDEO)

vrijdag 27 september 2013

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por Adriana Vélez hace 10 horas

A veces he leído historias de adolescente "sexting" y beber y me preocupo por nuestro futuro. Y luego leí historias como ésta y sólo tengo que creer... los chicos están muy bien. Estudiantes en Waverly-Shell Rock Senior High School en Waverly, Ohio eligieron a una muchacha con parálisis cerebral como su reina. Courtney Tharp sorprendió, luego me alegra ser coronado por sus compañeros. "Ella estaba muy emocionada," dice Subdirector Jeremy Langner. "Al principio era reacio a responder, pero empezó a dar a todo el mundo choca. Su rostro era impagable. Fue un momento muy lindo."

Esta historia tiene resonancia especial para mí porque mi hermana menor, Marisa, tiene parálisis cerebral. Conoce algunos discriminación desgarrador. Pero el amor, bondad y aprecio que es experimentada por sus compañeros hasta ahora ha compensado sus encuentros negativos. Como Courtney, se Unido positiva energía a cada comunidad que ha estado en, y la gente ama. Langer describe la contribución de Courtney, y por qué tan bien merece su corona.

El cuerpo estudiantil goza de estar alrededor de Courtney. Ella realmente encarna la comunidad, con su amor por el aprendizaje y la pasión por ser un Go-Hawk. Sobre una base diaria trae la actitud correcta.

Pero no se trata sólo de Courtney. Se trata de todos los estudiantes de. Es increíble que todos estos niños reconocen y valoran a alguien como Courtney. Esto habla bien de ellos. Sus padres deben estar orgullosos. Podría han votado en alguien "cooler", más popular. Pero en cambio, votaron en sus corazones.

"Honestamente, estoy más entusiasmado por Courtney que por mí," dice rey Kaleb Staack. "Es decir, sí, es un gran honor, pero para alguien como Courtney a ser mi reina, que es perfecto." ¿Oh Dios mío, quien crió ese niño dulce?

No recuerdo quién ganó reina cuando estaba en la secundaria. Pero apuesto a estos estudiantes nunca olvidarán que votaban por.

¿Le sorprende que los estudiantes elegidos a Courtney como su baile reina?

Imagen via KWWL

Sobre el autorAdriana Velez

es un escritor que recrea en alimentos, crianza, noticias, Entretenimiento, biología molecular y nada más que eso salta a la cabeza. Ella vive con su hijo de edad escolar primaria en Brooklyn, tierra de chacras urbanas y artesanal todo.

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Disney Changes Rules for Disabled Kids After Families Abuse Special Accommodations

maandag 23 september 2013

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AppId is over the quota
by Jeanne Sager 1 hour ago

It's supposed to be the happiest place on earth, but Disney World and Disneyland are anything but for members of the special needs community at the moment thanks to rumors spreading round the Internet. The theme parks are changing the "guest assistance cards" that parents of children with special needs have come to count on to make vacations with their kids possible. The GAC or GAP program (as its known) has long provided accommodations for children and teens with physical as well as cognitive, developmental, or behavioral challenges.

But rumors that the GAC had been stopped entirely, coupled with a huge petition to get the program back, has parents scared ... and their kids upset.

How would you explain to a child that their favorite vacation spot doesn't want them?

If you've got a neuro-typical kid, you probably haven't thought about it. I'll admit I didn't, even with a future Disney trip on my schedule. It wasn't until I stumbled on a post from one of my favorite bloggers, Shannon Rosa of Squidalicious, that I even knew parents worried that Disney was penalizing kids with special needs because of folks who have been abusing this privilege.

Maybe you heard about the rich jerks who were hiring disabled "family members" to come on vacation so they could get special perks at the parks? There was an expose on the practice a few months back, and then, suddenly, came the rumor that Disney had ended it all.

And parents freaked. For them this isn't a minor inconvenience. It's a full-blown problem. As Rosa, whose son Leo is on the autism spectrum, said on her blog:

You have to understand: our love of the GAC is not because we get to skip lines and blow raspberries at all the chumps who don't. Skipping lines is not a convenience but a necessary accommodation for our boy. Because he is autistic. Because of his specific disability.

Leo can wait in lines, but not always. Not lines of Disneyland length. Not without melting down due to the crowds, the noise, the expectation based on previous experience that he will not have to wait in lines longer than 20 or so minutes. Without the GAC, Disneyland is effectively barred to my son.

And it's not just kids with autism who are affected, here folks. Moriah Bettencourt's son, Alex (the cutie pictured above), has CHARGE Syndrome and he's considered to be deaf/blind as he has serious deficiencies in both areas. Alex, his mom says, "lives for Disneyland."

The family, which hails from the northwest, goes to the California amusement park two to three times a year, and they've found GAC isn't just helpful for them -- it helps the other folks in the park have a pleasurable experience BECAUSE Alex's needs are being met. As Moriah told The Stir:

When Alex was about 7 he was finally tall enough to ride some of the larger rides. At that point my husband was uncomfortable with the special needs pass and thought that we should try to stand in line to see if Alex could do it. About 10 minutes into our waiting in the Splash Mountain line Geoff was horrified when Alex suddenly grabbed two handfuls of the hair of the little girl in front of us. He didn't want to hurt her he just was fascinated by her hair that she kept swinging around but as you can imagine when a stranger suddenly grabs the hair of another stranger things get tense really quickly. 

We made our profuse apologies & promptly stepped out of line, since then the GAP has been a necessity for us. Alex is unable to be that close to strangers without wanting to touch them, it's a serious issue.

Needless to say, the Bettencourts, like the Rosas, were swearing off Disney for awhile. As are hundreds of thousands of families who have been cut off. They're among the nearly 20,000 that have signed a MoveOn petition to get Disney to roll back the changes.

But they may not have to.

The good news? The Stir reached out to Disney, and they say the rumors aren't true. They ARE changing the GAC process ... but it's still in place for now, and they're working with disability groups, including Autism Speaks, to make sure the new program will truly meet families' needs.

According to Michele Himmelber, a PR director for Disneyland Resort:

We have an unwavering commitment to making our parks accessible to all Guests. Given the increasing volume of requests we receive for special access to our attractions, we are changing our process to create a more consistent experience for all our guests while providing accommodations for guests with disabilities. We engaged disability groups, such as Autism Speaks, to develop this new process, which is in line with the rest of our industry.

The new program starts on October 9, and you can be sure parents will be watching, hoping that they make the right choice for their kids. As Shannon Rosa said:

In a fair and just society, you don't take away (or complicate) accommodations for people with disabilities just because non-disabled people are taking advantage of them and making other non-disabled people mad.

Do you use the special accommodations at theme parks? Are you concerned about the changes?

Image via Moriah Bettencourt

Click "Like" for more about parenting kids on the spectrum. ABOUT THE AUTHOR Jeanne Sager

writes articles for The Stir by day, slays closet monsters and bounds through bedtime stories with her elementary schooler by night. The Phineas and Ferb soundtrack reverberates through her brain.

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Disabled Daughter Left Handcuffed to Bed While Mom Attends a Wedding

maandag 5 augustus 2013

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AppId is over the quota
by Jeanne Sager 4 hours ago

A mother in Maryland could be facing some serious jail time after her mentally disabled daughter was found wandering around a North Carolina hotel this weekend. Tiffany Davis was at a wedding at the time, and it seems she didn't want her teenager, who has the mental capacity of a 3- or 4-year-old, along. Cops say she'd handcuffed her daughter to the hotel bed!

Kind of makes you wonder why she brought her along for the trip to North Carolina at all, doesn't it? But thank goodness she did.

Imagine, for just a second, if Davis' 19-year-old daughter had been left back home in Maryland.

Not only would a mentally handicapped girl have been left alone -- as she was at the hotel -- but who would have found her?

It's sad when this is the bright side of a story, but the fact is, there is some good here. The girl managed to get loose of her shackles, cops say, and she left the room. She was found, taken good care of, and mom was arrested.

Davis was jailed in Gaston County Jail on a $100,000 secured bond. Cops say they found handcuffs and a dog leash in the hotel room, and they have the witnesses from the hotel who shared enough info to substantiate a neglect charge against the 37-year-old Maryland mother.

A perfect ending?

No. Not even a happy one, necessarily, but this is life, not a fairy tale.

The fact is, if this poor girl hadn't been left in that hotel room, who knows what would have happened to her with a mother like that. This was, in essence, her ticket out of there, her chance to be rescued.

And from the sounds of the charges against her mom, it was about darn time.

What do you make of this horror story?

Image via police

ABOUT THE AUTHOR Jeanne Sager

writes articles for The Stir by day, slays closet monsters and bounds through bedtime stories with her elementary schooler by night. The Phineas and Ferb soundtrack reverberates through her brain.

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Parents of Intellectually Disabled Teens Want to Sterilize Them for Their Own Good

woensdag 17 juli 2013

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AppId is over the quota
by Ericka Sóuter 13 hours ago

For parents of disabled children, the reality is that they may be caring for them for the rest of their lives. For those that do, there is an unsettling issue that comes up -- how to deal with your teenage daughter when she goes through puberty? Some parents want to be able to sterilize their intellectually disabled girls to ensure a better quality of life. It's controversial, to be sure. But is it wrong?

Parents in favor of sterilization have found opposition in Australia. A commission on disability discrimination says that it may be a breach of human rights and the practice should be banned. However, I don't think the issue is so cut and dry. It's an agonizing decision for any parent. But it's not a question of imposing a limit on their child's future reproductive rights. These children will never have independent adult lives and families of their own. 

These moms and dads say it is difficult for their daughters to go through menstruation. It's a painful and messy process that they don't often understand. One of the families tried pills to halt the process, but their daughter just wouldn't take it. For them, it was all about quality of life for her and their family.

But more than that, there are other risks associated with becoming a woman. I have seen it within my own family. I have a cousin who is “intellectually disabled.” She has matured physically, but not mentally or emotionally. As she's aged, we have often feared someone would take advantage of her. She has the communication level of a non-speaking 2-year-old. It’s really frightening to think that someone could take advantage of her vulnerability and she could get pregnant. Perhaps making this choice for her and others like her should be considered an act of love and protection.

Do you think parents have the right to sterilize their disabled children?

Image via martinak15/Flickr

ABOUT THE AUTHOR Ericka Sóuter

is a veteran pop culture and celeb news writer. That experience boils down to two things: she knows way too much about the Kardashians and she dominates on Trivial Pursuit's arts and entertainment questions.

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