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Wednesday, May 10, 2006

Don't mess with a special needs momma

Someone on one of my Ds boards got arrested this past week. Not for drugs or alcohol or shoplifting. Not for child abuse or domestic violence. She was arrested, booked, strip searched, and had to post bail to get out, over Down syndrome.
She was dining with her family at a restaurant (with the initials IHOP) and there were 3 teenagers sitting behind her. They started making imitations of mentally retarded people and generally making a$$es of themselves. Yelling things like,"I isss hungyyyyy" and pounding their fists on their chests like monkeys. One of the boys said to the other,"Your mom should have aborted you, re*%^d." The woman and her husband, who are embarrassed & angry, tried to go on with their meal, but the kids just didn't stop. She doesn't think they saw her son with Ds sitting there, so at least it wasn't a personal thing. She turned around & politely asked them to stop, that she had a son with Ds, and she thought that was the end of it. Well, then they started singing a "new" version of "The Addams Family", called "The Re*&#ded Family". The woman got up to do speak to the manager, and the boys kept right on going with the imitations & derogatory speech. Well, that was it for the woman, and she slapped one of the boys on the forehead with her open palm, knocking him out of the booth he was sitting in.
The manager put the restaurant in lockdown, like she'd threatened the whole place, and the cops were there within minutes. She was arrested and because she has a blackbelt in karate, she was treated like common criminal. Her family had to post $500 bail, after she was told she might not even be allowed to get out.
Well, after being told to contact the media (because basically what these kids did constituted hate speech) things are starting to heat up a bit. The boys ended up being 17 & 18 (she slapped the 18 yr. old), and the girl who was with them said that they were intoxicated. They were also regulars of the restaurant, and that it seems like the manager was showing preferential treatment by not stopping the harassment sooner. The whole restaurant could hear them, but no one said a thing. The 18 yr old is pressing charges, but the 17 yr old's parents were appalled at their child's behavior, sent an apology, and aren't doing anything.
So, the moral of this story, as of right now, is, don't mess with a special needs momma. I'm very fortunate not to have been put into a situation like this before. If someone says the "R" word around me, I gently try to explain why I don't like it & ask that they choose a different word. I don't advocate violence in any form but, if I were to have been put in this same scenario, I can't guarantee that I wouldn't have done the same, or worse. Nobody messes with my kids. If you do, you risk unleashing the momma bear.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I can't say that I would have done the same thing, but that's not the point. Just as with my girls, Sarah is your baby, and you will do whatever you have to do to protect her. I understand why this mother did what she did.

Anonymous said...

BTW, do we get a preggo pic anytime soon? :-)

Amanda said...

LOL, you wish. I'll try to get some taken before I pop, but no guarantees. You'd think with having a former photographer for a husband that he'd want to constantly take pics of his beautiful family, but I've become the family picture nut.