By Kathleen Stauffer, For The Bulletin
Dawn remembers the bad old days.
Her son Jaime, now an adult working as The Arc Eastern Connecticut’s professional advocate, had just entered first grade. “I was not prepared for the school not to educate him,” she says. “They accepted him. They all thought he was adorable. He got away with anything. They treated him and others in his class like babies.”
“I have to say, I know these people meant well,” she says. “But the philosophy was very different then. They had kids with IDD, Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities, sit on the floor and sing songs, and I wanted my son to get an education. He could hold a pencil and write his name.” At a meeting with school administrators, Dawn insisted that Jaime receive proper schooling, but she didn’t feel heard. “So, I got up and walked out.”
“It is very different now. Parents have more of a voice. And I know some pretty strong parents. I was at the Special Olympics talent show rehearsal last night. And I just stood there and looked around and saw all those parents who have worked so hard to get their kids up there on stage.”
There was a time, about 70 years ago, that public schools turned children with IDD away. Ignorance led many educators to conclude that people with IDD couldn’t learn.
Like Dawn and other Arc parents, Evans changed lives forever by speaking on behalf of children with IDD and encouraging parents to demand equal treatment for their children.
Dawn says parents and people with IDD must be tenacious. “Don’t give up,” she says. “Don’t ever give up!”
Note: The Special Olympics talent show at Killingly High School slated for April has been canceled.
Kathleen Stauffer is chief executive officer of The Arc Eastern Connecticut. For more information on The Arc’s microbusinesses, go to www.TheArcECT.org. For more articles by this author, visit www.kathleenstauffer.com
