Caution-Retards In Area

[Guinastasia]

Jesus. Yeah, the guy doesn’t sound too bright himself, but he goes into peoples’ houses, eats their food and goes through their things? Ugh.

[smile4me2222]

He said the police department considered asking prosecutors to charge the boy when he hit the Galbraith’s 10-year-old daughter in the knee and elbow with rocks last November, but decided against it because the boy would be unable to understand what that meant.

I wonder why Child Protective Services hasn’t gotten involved? If the kid is wandering into people’s houses, he’s in serious danger of being shot.

[Bear_Nenno]

CAUTION: RETARDS WRITING NEWS ARTICLES

Bear_Nenno, SDMB Poster: What the fuck’s up with that article??

[smile4me2222]

Actually, there was a mildly autistic (Asperger’s Syndrome) boy in my daughter’s pre-school class who harassed her every day. The school eventually hired an extra teacher whose job it was to watch this particular kid. And ultimately the kid’s parents faced the reality that the child had problems and put him in a special school.

I’m sure that it’s extremely difficult and painful to have a child like this in your family. Between all the stress, and the desire to minimize the child’s problems, I’m sure it’s easy to forget that children like this can cause a lot of problems for other people’s children.

I have a feeling that the “retard” sign came down because the police paid friendly visits to both sets of parents and convinced the problem child’s parents to supervise him more closely.

[whole_bean]

am I the only one who’s reminded of Arnie in What’s Eating Gilbert Grape?

[kushiel]

This reminds me of a guy in high school I knew when I was younger. He had some developmental problems, but mostly on the social side - AFAIK, he was never in any modified classes. Anyway, he continually did things like kicked my seat on the bus, stole my backpack, taunted me, but he went overboard when he threw around slurs about my Dad. I spit in his face getting off the bus one day, and someone from my class remarked I shouldn’t have done that because he wasn’t quite ‘right in the head’ and ‘didn’t know any better’.

[SnakesCatLady]

I think we’ve had another thread fairly recently about developmentally disabled children not being supervised. The parents of the child are always saying “s/he’s only got the mind of a 3 year old” - but what about the parents? Would they let a 3 year old run around unsupervised? I agree that CPS should have been called in here a long time ago. What if the kid goes into someones house (who doesn’t have children, and therefore hasn’t childproofed the home) and gets into poison? Is the child’s mother going to blame the homeowner? I think the sign was rather heartless, but since the child couldn’t understand it maybe it did serve a purpose - it got some attention focused on the parents who were letting the child go unsupervised.

[Gene_Frenkle]

There was some documentery on HBO or something many years back, which showed a mentally reatarded or down’s syndrome boy, aged 8-10 or so, in regular school classes, and the point was how great it was. However, I thought is
was not so great, because this kid would, through no fault of his own, hit, punch, and otherwise disrupt the other kids and keep the other children from learning sometimes. And while I am all for children being exposed to special children, I don’t think 30 other kids should suffer in their learning to make one feel more “regular”, especially
when he is not even learning on their level.

[susan]

@Steve MB

Sign comes down in Nephi:

Not according to Court TV, which I had the misfortune to turn on inadvertently just now.

[Guinastasia]

@Gene Frenkle

There was some documentery on HBO or something many years back, which showed a mentally reatarded or down’s syndrome boy, aged 8-10 or so, in regular school classes, and the point was how great it was. However, I thought is
was not so great, because this kid would, through no fault of his own, hit, punch, and otherwise disrupt the other kids and keep the other children from learning sometimes. And while I am all for children being exposed to special children, I don’t think 30 other kids should suffer in their learning to make one feel more “regular”, especially
when he is not even learning on their level.

If you’re referring to the documentary, “Educating Peter”, then I do believe you remember wrong-I don’t recall him being violent with the other kids. What they were doing was slowly integrating him in, and gradually helping him not be disruptive.

[Contrapuntal]

@Mindfield

Are there no laws against public displays of prejudice like this?

How would you go about drafting such legislation? Can you offer an example?

[handsomeharry]

@smile4me2222

I wonder why Child Protective Services hasn’t gotten involved? If the kid is wandering into people’s houses, he’s in serious danger of being shot.

It didn’t occur to me until this thread that the parents must be some pretty sick puppies. You have a 13 year old kid (developmentally delayed??? that makes me think that next year he’ll be smarter, and the year after that, smarter…why don’t I believe that?) that you allow to wander into strange people’s houses? Sounds like mom and dad are developmentally regressed. It makes me sad to think that they may not be too sorry if the kid got stopped in a more terminal manner. Does anybody remember the story “The Scarlet Ibis?”

hh

[Cardinal]

@Gene Frenkle

There was some documentery on HBO or something many years back, which showed a mentally reatarded or down’s syndrome boy, aged 8-10 or so, in regular school classes, and the point was how great it was. However, I thought is
was not so great, because this kid would, through no fault of his own, hit, punch, and otherwise disrupt the other kids and keep the other children from learning sometimes. And while I am all for children being exposed to special children, I don’t think 30 other kids should suffer in their learning to make one feel more “regular”, especially
when he is not even learning on their level.

“The most learning for the most students” is the basic mantra of the schools these days. I agree with you.

[neutron_star]

@Bear_Nenno

CAUTION: RETARDS WRITING NEWS ARTICLES

Bear_Nenno, SDMB Poster: What the fuck’s up with that article??

It’s not a traditional news article at all, but rather a transcript of a TV news story. There’s a link to the video directly to the right of the first paragraph. Where the transcript says something like “Carrie Heaton, Nephi Resident,” those are the words on the bottom of the screen at that point in the video.

[Kiwi_Fruit]

@Bear_Nenno

CAUTION: RETARDS WRITING NEWS ARTICLES

Bear_Nenno, SDMB Poster: What the fuck’s up with that article??

It reads as a transcript of a broadcast news item. As spoken and written English are distinct varieties of communication with different conventions, when one reads a transcript, it often seems to be a little queer.

If you gloss over the style and read it for the story, you can feel sorry for Ms Heaton and for the neighbours who bear some of the trials of a person not functioning as we expect people to.

The sign is rude and crass, but many people are like that anyway.

Cheers,
Kiwi Fruit

[RickJay]

@Guinastasia

Jesus. Yeah, the guy doesn’t sound too bright himself, but he goes into peoples’ houses, eats their food and goes through their things? Ugh.

I’ve known retarded kids, known familes with retarded kids and I’ve honestly never heard of such a thing, at least not as a recurring, every-week sort of thing. There was clearly a really serious problem here.

[Cluricaun]

@neutron star

It’s not a traditional news article at all, but rather a transcript of a TV news story. There’s a link to the video directly to the right of the first paragraph. Where the transcript says something like “Carrie Heaton, Nephi Resident,” those are the words on the bottom of the screen at that point in the video.

Aha! Now it’s even better if you go back and read it to yourself in a really bad William Shatner voice.

[Guinastasia]

@RickJay

I’ve known retarded kids, known familes with retarded kids and I’ve honestly never heard of such a thing, at least not as a recurring, every-week sort of thing. There was clearly a really serious problem here.

Exactly. (Oh, and when I said, “the guy isn’t too bright himself”, I meant the guy who put up the sign-I should have cleared that up.)

All that has to happen is that kid gets bit by a dog, or gets hurt, etc-major problems.

[MannyL]

@Monty

Check that sign again. It does not say

Quote:
RETARDS IN AREA

It clearly says

Quote:
RETARD’S IN AREA

Showcasing your own lack of mental ability is an odd way to go about insulting another’s mental abilities.

I don’t see a ’ in the sign I do see the bottom of the N in CAUTION going too low

[cruel_butterfly]

I’m confused about some things:

1. What exactly does a sign warning others of the presence of a mentally-challenged individual do to bring peace to a neighborhood?

2. If the sign is meant to ward off the actual “retard,” why did his mother say that it was a good thing that the kid couldn’t understand what it said?

3. If the kid couldn’t understand what the sign said, why is this such a big deal? Couldn’t the mother just chalk it up to a dipshit neighbor and his own insecurities since the “injured party” (the retarded kid) doesn’t even know that he’s being insulted?