Looking in closets and under beds

Photo from Wikimedia

I’ve been up all night again, with no intentions to stop anytime soon. Tonight I’m working on a very important article, an in depth look at Seclusion and Restraint in schools. I think it’s important anyway. I’ve been putting off finishing it for too long, because the subject is hard and the research is terrible. I don’t think I’ll be able to convey even a small percentage of it.

In a way, I feel that I’m doing this for Jaden. He will be homeschooled, but the discrimination and mentality that allows and drives these practices is alive and cancerous in our society. The unspoken idea that our children – these precious, innocent children – are subhuman. That somehow, having a developmental disability, a communication disorder, a physical handicap, makes you “a soulless empty shell” or “unable to contribute to society.”

You see these, and many, many more comments I’ve had to read already. Had to, because I’m not doing this for glory (who looks at the byline anyway?) or money (minimum wage looks downright wealthy compared to my pay-rate). Heck, some of the top advice about writing online for money I am breaking all over the place right now. “Write quick, short articles. Don’t spend time and research on them because that’s not financially worth your time.”

But that’s not why I’m writing. If it were I could plug my TV cable back in and write about Snooky, whoever that is. I’m writing because somewhere, a little child is going to wake up on Monday with a rock in his stomach, dreading the day. Somewhere a little girl is going to be forced into another broom closet, and not have the ability to tell her parents it’s happening. So I am. I will try to tell them, to look under their beds because sometimes there really is a boogey-man there. I know. One of them posted a comment on the video of Jeremy’s ordeal. Instead of the human response of being sick to her stomach as many of us were, she was angry and defensive. I believe that only a person who has done this would react that way.

And they think of our children as subhuman, soulless, non-contributors? Is that what qualifies as quality contributions to society? I’ll take instead the beautiful smiles, innocent eyes, the pure displays of unfiltered human emotions, that I see on the face of my son and in my friends’ children.

What kills me is that the wrongness of it needs an explanation. That I have to research experts to back up the obvious - that this is a horrible and barbaric thing to do to a child. ANY child. That it's archaic, that it's torture. That it "causes PTSD" and is proven to be ineffective should be something that shouldn't need to be told as evidence of it's being wrong. Being a human should tell you that.

Back to work. My least favorite time of the year is upon us. It’s Halloween and I have monsters to flush out.