This time it was in Canada, and a special needs student. Students with physical and emotional challenges are also targeted by bullies, and vulnerable. I know this first hand, having been born with club feet, and mercilessly bullied in elementary school myself – I suppose that is where I learned how to fight and this may also have been formative as to my somewhat pugnacious temprament and interest in fighting for the vulnerable as an attorney. I can remember being told by another child’s mother that she was not allowed to play with me because I “walked funny”. Yes, it happened.
I also know this as a mother – my son had a six year delay in his gross motor skills and was a target, leading to serious problems with our school, and challenges for him. I am very proud that he choose to not become a mean spirited person, but rather one who protects others. At one point a hearing officer determined that an incident that led to 22 stitches was the result of the school’s failure to keep our son safe, and follow his individual education plan – that is enough to tell you when I said “serious” I was not exagerating.
I think the “It gets better” campaign, or something like it, for kids with muscular dystrophy, cerebral palsy, obsessive-compulsive and other challenges done by adults who have made good lives despite such conditions would also save lives. How about it? The real work of adults is to protect children and leave a better life for the next generation.
I can wish. Parenting a child with invisible disabilities like motor delays, sensory integration or dyspraxia, or mental health issues is lonely for the parent – but all too often the child has a lonely childhood because being different can so easily lead to being excluded. An isolated, excluded child often carries the pain of such a childhood into adulthood.
Can’t we do better?
