Search Results for "fight club"
Fight Club Atrocity Update
Published July 06, 2009 @ 04:00PM PT
In May, the fight club story broke--support staff forced adults with mental disabilities to beat each other up and filmed it on their cell phones. The atrocity only came to light because one of the staff people lost their cell phone.
Now it seems that one of the staff people, a woman named Stephanie Garza, is being offered immunity in return for testimony--not an overly popular offer. But even more disturbing is this statement from the article:
The challenge in this case is that most of the victims suffer from some sort of mental disability and a jury is much more likely to doubt their testimony than the testimony of someone like Garza, who is perfectly competent.
Reference back to the connection between abuse and power.
How do we protect ourselves, how do we report violence in a way that assures the violence will end, when we are so often automatically dismissed just because we have a diagnosis of something "mental?"
It is all too easy to continue to abuse when there are no, or very light, consequences to the action.
The trial begins today.
Monday Autism News Potpourri
Published July 13, 2009 @ 09:49AM PT
Updates:
1. Fight Club
In bad news for the residents, the actual fight club videos are currently not being allowed as evidence in the trial. This decision is currently under appeal. The defense is asserting that the cell phone with the videos was stolen and illegally accessed by police; the prosecution is asserting that the cell phone was in fact abandoned in a public place (the story as it originally broke btw makes this assertion). The trial will continue regardless of the outcome of the cell phone appeal, however the video is, obviously, a very strong piece of evidence for the defense.
2. Psycho Donuts
On July 25 - 26, a representative each from Psycho Donuts and a mental health organization will discuss the issue of stigma on TV. Some of the donuts are described in the post, and yeah, they are pretty offensive,
"Should my friend, who suffered major head trauma after a drunken driver hit him two weeks ago, enjoy the doughnut M.H.T., for massive head trauma - a doughnut with an X for each eye, a frown and a smudge of red frosting on the side of the frosted face?" writes Stapleton [a staff writer for Palm Beach Post]. "I am not laughing."
Um. Yeah. Me neither.
Broadcast details: Channel 2 KTVU Saturday July 25 at 6:30 a.m.; KICU TV36 on Sunday July 26 at 9 a.m.; Comcast on Demand the week after July 26.
Actions:
1. Matthew Shepard Act
Very soon, as early as this Wednesday, July 15, the Senate will vote on the Matthew Shepard Hate Crimes Prevention Act. This act has already passed in the House. Now is the time to get loud and get personal--call or fax your Senators and urge them to support this very important piece of public health and safety legislation.
2. Judge Sotomayor
For anyone who is in a position to do so and is so inclined, a letter of support of Sotomayor to be signed by disability organizations is available. If interested, here is more information and the text of the letter with some signatures.
Self-Advocacy and Support Worker Atrocities
Published May 15, 2009 @ 09:23AM PT
A support worker who helped people with developmental disabilities to manage their bank accounts also "helped" herself to thousands of her clients' dollars.
This happened in my county, in my city, in my state.
Even more horrific, so much so that there is no appropriate adjective to describe it, are the cell phone "Fight Club" videos that were recently exposed by accident when a cell phone was lost,
Terrified residents at a Corpus Christi, Texas, state school for the mentally disabled were forced to be part of a brutal "fight club" operated by night shift employees, who made videos of the sessions with their cell phones, the newly released videos show.
The ABC News report includes video clips, so upsetting that I couldn't watch more than a few seconds. I do not recommend viewing the clips if you have ever been subject of this kind of abuse.
This may have happened in your county, in your city, in your state.
The woman in Oregon worked for the reputable organization United Cerebral Palsy which, despite the name, does provide services for autistic people in my area. The residents in Texas were simply described as "mentally disabled" which may or may not have included some autistic people. But it really doesn't matter--these atrocities illustrate a larger, ongoing, key problem that effects anyone who needs daily living support.
These things happen every day. They happen where I live, where you live. They may be happening right now to someone reading this.
Yes, background checks are done. And yes, organizations are very careful about who they hire. But those items alone obviously do not stop con artists and sadists from entering the system. Especially when financial cuts to services affect the kind of support staff who is hired ("Some state legislators say the problems began with Perry administration budget cuts in 2003 that reduced money for health and human services in Texas.") Especially when power imbalances by default silence us with fear and threats to our survival.
I asked a self-advocate recently why he got involved in disability rights activism. "One of my support workers stole money from me. I got really angry. I wasn't going to take that ever again."
This is one of the many reasons why giving people on the spectrum (or other DD or ID or any sort of disability at all) every opportunity possible to learn self-advocacy skills is critical. While it would be nice to think that support workers and the agencies they work for will protect us from predators, and that laws help too, the reality is that no agency, individual, or law is ultimately able to make that sort of promise. Precautions can filter out the worst, but never all. Which leaves, in the end, only us to protect ourselves and each other. How?
