Disability Harassment

ISBN: 9780814794050 出版年：2007 页码： Mark C Weber New York University Press

INTRODUCTION It is a common mistake to view disability discrimination as mere thoughtlessness or failure to take extra steps to accommodate the unique needs of people with disabilities. (1) In reality, much disability discrimination is the overt expression of hostility and the conscious effort to subordinate members of a group with less power and social standing than the majority. A key example of intentional discrimination against individuals with disabilities (2) is harassment on the basis of differences in physical or mental characteristics. Courts, however, wedded to the idea that disability discrimination is the mere failure to accommodate, frequently fail to take seriously the damage that harassment inflicts and refuse to provide an adequate legal response. Nowhere is the injury more common or more severe than in elementary and high schools. A few cases illustrate this point. Robert Kubistal was a seventh grader with an undiagnosed visual impairment. (3) His teacher routinely called him "butthead" and said she would like to take out his eyes and give them to a child who would work harder. His mother complained to Robert's principal and ultimately to the Board of Education. After the principal assured Robert's mother that the teacher would apologize if necessary, the teacher called Robert up to the front of the class, got down on her knees and in an exaggerated voice said, "I'm so sorry, Bobby!" (4) She then turned to the class and stuck a finger in her throat to mimic inducing vomiting. At some point the next year, after the visual impairment was diagnosed, Robert was moved to another teacher's room. During that time, the principal came to the classroom and erected an "isolation chamber" (5) for Robert with movable bookcases. Robert sat in the isolation chamber every day for several weeks, including during his lunch period. Robert's mother complained to the teacher, who said the principal was responsible, so she then complained to the principal, who said the teacher was responsible. Robert graduated despite never having been assigned eighth grade work. At the ceremony, the graduation marshal skipped over Robert's name, looked at Robert's mother, giggled, and finally said, "Oh, Robert Kubistal." As a result of these humiliations, Robert suffered from depression, bed-wetting, and lost interest in school. (6) Charlie F. was a fourth grader with attention deficit disorder and was prone to panic attacks. (7) Every week, his teacher held sessions in which she asked her students to discuss their feelings. She repeatedly asked them to discuss Charlie and his behavior, "and they all too willingly obliged, leading to humiliation, fistfights, mistrust, loss of confidence and self-esteem, and disruption of Charlie's educational progress." (8) Although the teacher instructed the students to keep the sessions a secret, the truth came out. Charlie's parents moved him to another school, but children from the seventh-grade class still taunted and ridiculed him when they ran into him outside school. (9) Shawn Witte was a ten-year old with Tourette's syndrome, asthma, attention deficit disorder, an emotional disability, and deformities of the feet and legs. (10) At school, his teacher forced him to eat oatmeal, though his mother had told the teacher that Shawn was allergic to it. The teacher and an aide force-fed Shawn, one of them holding his hands behind his back while the other spooned him oatmeal mixed with his own vomit. The principal was aware of the practice and explained it to Shawn's mother as a form of punishment. To punish Shawn for not running fast enough during an exercise period, the aide choked him, causing an emergency room visit in which the physician diagnosed strangulation. When Shawn made involuntary body movements due to tics, the teacher and aides tackled and sat on him. The staff placed Shawn on a treadmill with weights attached to his ankles in an effort to tire him out and keep him from leaving the classroom. …