March 29, 2024
BANGOR DAILY NEWS (BANGOR, MAINE

People come first, labels last

The individuals who were allegedly abused are people first, not “mentally retarded people.”

In a Dec. 21-22 story headlined, “Former Pineland workers indicted,” the Bangor Daily News reported on allegations of abuse of people who reside at the Pineland Center. This reporting is laudable and perhaps long overdue. At the same time, the article has recourse to a manner of referring to people with mental retardation, which risks reinforcing an outmoded, though still too prevalent, attitude toward these persons.

The report refers to “mentally retarded men,” “the mentally retarded,” and “mentally retarded adults.” The problem with this language is that it makes the disability — mental retardation — paramount. It assigns the people who are the victims of these alleged acts to a vague class, “the mentally retarded,” and exposes them to the risk of further victimization by being stereotyped and perhaps stigmatized by your readers. The individuals who were allegedly abused are people first, not “mentally retarded people,” or, as the statute unfortunately states, “incompetent persons,” but rather simply people, like everyone else.

The way in which we refer to people with disabilities is not a simple matter of “political correctness.” Our manner of speaking and classifying reflects our manner of thinking and behaving. The legacy of Pineland Center is that it was seen as a place for “them,” those people who couldn’t live, were considered unfit for life in mainstream society. This way of thinking is not only outmoded philosophically, but inaccurate in fact.

People with mental retardation live and thrive in communities throughout Maine. They work alongside us in “our” stores and restaurants, they attend our schools, they live in the apartment or the house next door. They are people like us.

Pineland Center is slated for closing by the end of 1994 because there is no need for a segregated setting for people with mental retardation. There is a need for services which may nt yet yet exist in all communities. One of the essential things, call it a service if you will, that will do most to enhance the quality of life of people with mental retardation is a welcoming community. When the individuals who make up our communities embrace people with mental retardation as people first, and treat them so in their language and behavior, our communities will be better places for all of us.

I am really not sure what prosecutor Laurence Gardner meant when he said “the men are so retarded they probably did not know they were being abused.” If he was referring to whether the men would have characterized the acts allegedly perpetrated against them as “abuse” he may be accurate — that the men were not hurt by these acts. This is categorically untrue. As people, these men, whether or not they are able to express their pain and outrage, would be damaged by the types of abuse described in the article.

It is frighteningly true that people with mental retardation often do not recognize absusive behavior for what it is: a violation of their human rights. This lack of recognition of abuse may be due to society’s long history of separate and unequal treatment of people with disabilities. In short, some people with mental retardation may have been treated so badly for so long that they simply perceive abusive behavior toward themselves as the way things are. Again, this does not mean people do not suffer from such treatment — they most certainly do — but more likely that they do not believe they have any recourse to stop the abuse. Ultimately, the Dec. 21 article, despite its choice of language, shows that recourse is sometimes achieved, and I applaud this action by the Cumberland County District Attorney’s Office.

Strides are being made. Last year’s Americans with Disabilities Act (note, not the Disabled Americans Act) and the Civil Rights Bill of 1991 finally extend equal protection and recourse to these Americans in such areas as employment, public accommodations, and transportation. This legislation was long overdue, and has yet to work its way into the fabric of the daily lives of most Mainers. When we no longer read about “the mentally retarded” but about people, whatever their handicap, we may at last be living in a society which is beginning to value all its participants equally.

Steve DeMaio is an advocate with the Maine Department of Mental Health and Mental Retardation.


Have feedback? Want to know more? Send us ideas for follow-up stories.

comments for this post are closed

You may also like