The Washington PostDemocracy Dies in Darkness

Opinion School board members — and everyone else — should stop using the r-word

November 19, 2017 at 6:32 p.m. EST
Montgomery County school board member Judy Docca in Rockville in 2007. (Ricky Carioti/The Washington Post)

Regarding the Nov. 15 Metro article "Md. school official regrets word choice":

The vice president of the Montgomery County Board of Education has been caught by the word police. But there are hidden messages in the word “retarded” uttered by Judy Docca, even though she has apologized.

Fairfax County Public Schools, like Montgomery schools, urge “diversity and inclusion,” which makes a slip of the tongue a concern of parents who have students with disabilities.  Words have power.

In Fairfax County, I was told by my daughter’s former special-education principal that my daughter “is not a real child”: “They’re not real children — they’re a kind of children.” This speaks volumes. As the daughter of a career Coast Guard officer, I attended schools in 10 public school systems from New York to Hono­lulu, and I taught in four, including overseas. I don’t need to be told how to recognize a real child as if I were a country bumpkin or a child myself.

In the changing landscape of the Arctic Circle, as polar bears search for food, visitors to the region are instructed to beware approaching bears. “It’s not the bear you see — it’s the bear you don’t see.” Whether spoken in jest or in earnest, “retarded” and “not a real child” are unacceptable. And what’s in a label isn’t nearly as important as the inference as to how some students are treated behind the closed doors of the classroom.

Helen Hurt Wiech, Montclair