This week, I've picked out three different news articles that exemplify the lack of concern and attention, those with special needs should be receiving. In each of these articles, we can see the unfair treatment of those with mental disabilities and the effects they have on those closest to them.
I started off with a story about a boy named Cal who was attacked by another student with special needs on a school bus. The problem with this story is that neither the bus driver or bus aid seemed to report the incident. The reason this story made the news was because the parents found out much later than they should have of what really happened to their son. The situation was under explained and was made to sound like Cal just fell and got a cut. When watching the videos, you can clearly see it all took place right in his seat. The reporting aspect of this story was actually pretty thorough. I believe this story, while being a very brief one, gave all of the information without any bias or misuse of terminology. The two offenders didn't receive the punishment I believe that they should have.
The second story I analyzed was about two child care workers who were caught degrading a child with autism. Watching the videos attached to this article made me very angry and upset at the fact that some people don't see a problem with treating any child like they did. From my own experiences when interning for a company that hosted a day-habilitation program, I never saw anyone mock or instigate one of the individuals. For my short time there, I still had to go through a small background check, get fingerprinted, and also drug tested. I still had very little access to what i could and could not do while I was there but it was all taken very seriously. This story failed to give more information on the girls and their process of how they originally got their jobs at this facility. A lot of this story ended up focusing more on the two offenders rather than the victim of the hate crime.
Sociologically, you can see the difference between the two stories I have just gone over and see the different punishments the offenders received. In the first, the offenders are the bus driver and aid that did not report the incident. In the second it's the two girls that fully committed the offense. I think that they each got the correct punishment of getting fired from their jobs immediately but one has to understand the racial aspects of these stories. The bus offenders were both (presumably) white while the two day care girls were both (again, presumably) black. Race is always an aspect that we have to look at while analyzing articles due to the variation in treatment between races. If the two girls were white, I wonder if the punishments would be lighter and vice versa with if the bus workers were a part of a minority group.
The third story seems to tie all of these ideas together and it's where we see many more problems and the intersectionality really come into play. The third article I wanted to analyze is of the story of a behavioral therapist named Charles Kinsey. The first thing I want to point out is that no one but the police officers involved was armed in this situation. The police had received a call about a suicidal man walking around with a gun. This said person was a patient in a nearby center that just happened to walk out and had a toy truck in his hand.This call was completely inaccurate and ended with a very serious crime. I believe that whomever made that initial call was scared of the man with a disability and therefore called police. This information was assumed to be true so the police had the thought going in that they had to have their weapons ready. Even though Kinsey was on the ground with his hands in the air, he was shot. The police should have been concerned with the disabled man and just trying to get him home safely but they then turned to Kinsey and assumed he was dangerous. The police officer tried to use the excuse that he "was trying to fire at the autistic man, who he believed was armed". This statement shows just how quick police are in using deadly forces when there is only ASSUMED threats.
Overall, these articles show not only the lack of focus on the victim of the situations but seem to leave out any help or therapy the victims receive after the trauma. The news coverage seemed to display the offense that happened and what happened to the offenders.
I started off with a story about a boy named Cal who was attacked by another student with special needs on a school bus. The problem with this story is that neither the bus driver or bus aid seemed to report the incident. The reason this story made the news was because the parents found out much later than they should have of what really happened to their son. The situation was under explained and was made to sound like Cal just fell and got a cut. When watching the videos, you can clearly see it all took place right in his seat. The reporting aspect of this story was actually pretty thorough. I believe this story, while being a very brief one, gave all of the information without any bias or misuse of terminology. The two offenders didn't receive the punishment I believe that they should have.
The second story I analyzed was about two child care workers who were caught degrading a child with autism. Watching the videos attached to this article made me very angry and upset at the fact that some people don't see a problem with treating any child like they did. From my own experiences when interning for a company that hosted a day-habilitation program, I never saw anyone mock or instigate one of the individuals. For my short time there, I still had to go through a small background check, get fingerprinted, and also drug tested. I still had very little access to what i could and could not do while I was there but it was all taken very seriously. This story failed to give more information on the girls and their process of how they originally got their jobs at this facility. A lot of this story ended up focusing more on the two offenders rather than the victim of the hate crime.
Sociologically, you can see the difference between the two stories I have just gone over and see the different punishments the offenders received. In the first, the offenders are the bus driver and aid that did not report the incident. In the second it's the two girls that fully committed the offense. I think that they each got the correct punishment of getting fired from their jobs immediately but one has to understand the racial aspects of these stories. The bus offenders were both (presumably) white while the two day care girls were both (again, presumably) black. Race is always an aspect that we have to look at while analyzing articles due to the variation in treatment between races. If the two girls were white, I wonder if the punishments would be lighter and vice versa with if the bus workers were a part of a minority group.
The third story seems to tie all of these ideas together and it's where we see many more problems and the intersectionality really come into play. The third article I wanted to analyze is of the story of a behavioral therapist named Charles Kinsey. The first thing I want to point out is that no one but the police officers involved was armed in this situation. The police had received a call about a suicidal man walking around with a gun. This said person was a patient in a nearby center that just happened to walk out and had a toy truck in his hand.This call was completely inaccurate and ended with a very serious crime. I believe that whomever made that initial call was scared of the man with a disability and therefore called police. This information was assumed to be true so the police had the thought going in that they had to have their weapons ready. Even though Kinsey was on the ground with his hands in the air, he was shot. The police should have been concerned with the disabled man and just trying to get him home safely but they then turned to Kinsey and assumed he was dangerous. The police officer tried to use the excuse that he "was trying to fire at the autistic man, who he believed was armed". This statement shows just how quick police are in using deadly forces when there is only ASSUMED threats.
Overall, these articles show not only the lack of focus on the victim of the situations but seem to leave out any help or therapy the victims receive after the trauma. The news coverage seemed to display the offense that happened and what happened to the offenders.
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