Disabled Kids Still Digging in the Trash at School

Yesterday on the way home from school, my daughter who took the videos, said that the school says that they want to teach the kids to take care of the planet by recycling, and she said in a really angry voice,

"The problem is that the kids in the Special Ed. class don't understand about responsibility, they just want their ice cream and the regular kids don't do it, because it's not cool to dig in the trash. Responsibility is doing what I did".

They didn't pick anything from the trash that day, and we were really happy, though my daughter was a little reluctant, because she said that that day was Club day, which happens once every two months, and there were no bottle and cans to pick up, because the kids get to buy foods different from the regular cafeteria food. She was right and today she saw them again picking bottles from the trash. How they can justify the treatment of this kids is beyond me. If I catch my son being treated like that, I don't think I could control myself.

Putting these kids in a situation where they are the target of ridicule and humiliation is not teaching them anything of value. If anything they will learn that they are less then the other children.

Disabled Students Humiliated-Update!

I have been digging more and what is happening is that the special ed kids are picking up recyclables. When they collect a certain amount by Friday, they get Ice cream. So after they eat lunch they walk around for the rest of their lunch, with plastic bags picking up cans and bottles from the floor and the trash. Recyclables or not, it's still trash. They are still in the middle of the cafeteria being exposed to the other kids' mean comments.

They dig in the trash and then they touch their face, gross! If I were given an option for or against my Mickie doing that I would oped out.

The regular kids are encouraged to do this too, but none of them do it, because they find it gross and embarrassing. Special kids on the other hand don't understand social subtleties, and all they know is that they might get ice cream on Friday. They should be getting ice cream anyway!!

I still think it's disgusting, humiliating and wrong in so many levels!!

Disabled Students Humiliated!

Last week as I was getting Mickie ready for school, one of his sisters said to me,

"Alta Loma Junior High"

"Mom me and my friend got really sad yesterday", I asked her why, and she said something that really hit home.

Apparently the kids from the Special Ed. class get to go to the front of the line to get their lunch, but after they're done, their job is to pick up trash in the cafeteria, while the regular students eat, make fun of them and throw extra trash for them to pick up.

These innocent kids laugh, while being laughed at, and pick every piece of trash thrown on the floor. All this goes on, under the watchful eye, of the principal and vice principal. This is what my daughter also said,

Video taken on October 21, 2008

" While the regular kids eat lunch, the disabled kids come out 5 minutes before lunch is over and proctors tell them certain areas to clean up trash. Some of the kids keep throwing trash on the floor on purpose and saying, "Hey look at all those retards cleaning up crap, Ha, ha, ha." Then they go up to them and say, “Look there’s trash over there!"


Video taken on October 21, 2008

May be these special kids don't understand what's going on, but that doesn't make it right. What is wrong with our society, that we can't bring ourselves to treat the mentally disabled with the dignity they deserve. The disabled have a right to be valued and respected. All of us should make it our responsibility to watch over them and protect them, not humiliate them. I fail to see what picking up everyone else's trash is teaching them. The brats who are dropping trash on the floor, should get written up for being slobs.

On Friday, I tried to go into the school during lunch to see for myself and was denied entrance.