Dehumanization of students with special needs

By Staff Writer Rajorshi Chatterjee

Twice a week, for 30 minutes each, I read to a 21-year-old with special needs, usually covering news about people from around the world. She remembers them very well, picking up on details even I have no recollection of. During one particular session, as we rifled through my middle school yearbook, I saw many different faces, including those of students who I vividly remember mocking students with special needs. I thought back to just a few days ago when a middle schooler told me about how his teacher jokingly called another student “sped,” a derogatory term for students with special needs. To me, this anecdote, laughed off by the student recounting it to me, highlighted a broader issue. In this case and many others, the normalization of degrading language centered around students with special needs serves to further dehumanize these students and exclude them from the student body.

Just because this deplorable behavior is incredibly normalized does not make it any less inexcusable. Derisively referring to students as “sped,” even as a joke, is not only tasteless and cruel to those who do have a disability, but also turns a struggle they had no part in choosing into their fault. Furthermore, it amplifies a culture at MSJ where demeaning others for their physical and intellectual traits is socially acceptable. In a country where 15% of all students are now served under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, the normalization of degrading special needs students pushes a dangerous narrative about who is and isn’t accepted in schools and social circles.

These actions are especially ignorant of their consequences when, according to a 2020 Forbes Article, 96% of all disabled people in the US have invisible disabilities, meaning they aren’t immediately obvious to other people. Furthermore, according to a 2019 legislative report, while 20% of these students are taught in special-day classrooms, the other 80% are placed in regular classrooms and endure this rhetoric regularly. Furthermore, acording to a multitude of studies which studied children with and without learning disabilities in schools, at every grade level higher percentages of those with learning disabilities experienced loneliness compared to their peers without. One of these studies, which examined 122 adolescents with learning disabilities and 120 without, found that children with learning disabilities were lonelier and rated to be less adjusted by teachers and peers alike. Students must learn that their demeaning words also extend to the students who surround them, even if they are not intended to. The casual use of ableist rhetoric only reinforces the exclusion of children with disabilities from schools. Ultimately, even though it may seem harmless to students who routinely use degrading language to students with special needs as a joke, their actions do have a very real negative impact on the reception and mental health of those who do have disabilities here at MSJ. 

Students at MSJ must recognize the harmful effects of their careless words and actions and rectify it. This can start with students educating themselves and their peers about the real impact of the rhetoric they spread. In addition, they can make positive impacts through organizations dedicated to helping children and adults iwth special needs. These include Friends of Children with Special Needs, which aims to help children and adults with special needs and MSJ Best Buddies or Best Buddies International, nonprofits dedicated to giving individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities support in employment, leadership counseling, living spaces, and facilitating opportunities for close friendships. As part of Friends of Children With Special Needs, I have had the extremely rewarding experience of meeting and working with children and adults with special needs — an experience that I found to have broadened my own knowledge, but also one that I found incredibly joyful.  Creating an accepting environment and overturning negative stigmas towards the disabled student body in MSJ starts with the actions of its students. By recognizing the harmful behavior of their peers and intervening when derogatory language or rhetoric is being used, we can all help create an MSJ where all — able or not — are welcome.