Definition of a Disability
In a story published May 15, the attorney for Jeanne Warnecke, a teacher accused of killing 14-year-old autistic student Barth Pico, stated, “These are socially undesirable people. . . .”
I would like to set the record straight. Autism is a severely incapacitating lifelong developmental disability. It has no known psychological causes. These children are not criminals, they are merely disabled, as are the blind, deaf or mentally retarded.
If we are going to start desigating the disabled as “social undesirables,” perhaps we should get rid of handicapped parking places, or captioned television shows.
I would like to think that humanity has grown beyond that kind of thinking, that we have compassion and respect for all human beings. For how else may we respect ourselves?
SALLY RAMSEY
Laguna Hills
Ramsey is vice president of the Orange County chapter of the National Society for Children and Adults with Autism.
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