You Can’t Discriminate Against the Diagnosis, But You Can Discriminate Against the Symptoms
Last time, I’ve mentioned about the IEPs I’ve had during my school years and how some accommodations aren’t always met for other disabled people. Well, I guess you can call this a sequel to that other post because this time, I’m going to talk about how many disabled and mentally ill people are more often to get suspended/excluded from schools and jobs than their neurotypical counterparts.
I was never really a troublemaker back in school, especially in middle and high school. I was, however, quite the troublemaker back in elementary school. Yeah, imagine that. So, what kinds of trouble did I get into back in elementary school? Well…
For starters, I once told my first-grade teacher to shut up, and that got me spanked (despite my mother not allowing the school to spank me). I didn’t really know what “shut up” meant at the time, but that’s fair enough to discipline a child for that. I’ve also been in trouble for not working well in groups and having meltdowns… Oh, speaking of getting in trouble for having a meltdown…
Freshman year of high school was not the best year of my school life; I had a lot of meltdowns during that year, especially during the first few days since I had a hard time transitioning from middle school to high school. Anyways, I was having a meltdown in my sociology class for some reason I can’t remember. Believe it or not, my teacher was pretty understanding about my meltdowns. The freshman school counselor, on the other hand, was not. While having a meltdown one day, this counselor walked up towards me and told me that if I didn’t get out of the class and walk with her, then the police would come and arrest me.
Did you read that correctly? If I didn’t get up with the counselor and walk with her, the police would come and arrest me. And it’s all because I was having an autistic meltdown on one day. I’m not exaggerating. A meltdown is an autistic person’s response to overstimulation whether it be physical or mental. How is that something worth being punished for, especially by police force? In fact, why do disabled and mentally ill people have to worry about police brutality more than neurotypical people?
For example, a mute man was killed by police in Toronto back in 2011 because he wasn’t answering their questions. And do you know why he wasn’t answering their questions? Because he was, you know, MUTE, and unable to communicate with police officers via speaking! HE WAS NOT ABLE TO SPEAK; HOW THE HELL WOULD HE BE ABLE TO ANSWER A POLICE OFFICER’S QUESTION?!
Another man, this time a 57-year-old autistic man, was murdered by police officers in Miami because he wouldn’t give up his toy gun- his TOY gun. Nobody should be killed because of a toy weapon. Not if their names were Tamir or Ernest. It’s just not worth it, especially if they’re a child or developmentally delayed.
Do you wanna know what’s about as common as a disabled/mentally ill person being killed by the police? A disabled/mentally ill person being tasered by the police. Did you know that a 15-year-old autistic boy from Iowa was tasered a few years ago? In fact, did you know that 33–50% of forceful police incidents involve disabled people? Did you know that two-thirds of all people tasered in England and Wales are mentally ill? Why is that? Why do police officers often target disabled/mentally ill people- the people who need the most help? Maybe it’s because the police officers think that our symptoms are signs of intentional aggression despite most incidents not being so and just being a response to mental overstimulation. That’s when it dawned on me…
You can’t discriminate against the diagnosis, but you can discriminate against the symptoms.
Let’s think about it. There are laws against discrimination against disabled people (The Americans with Disabilities Act is a huge thing.), but disabled people make up anywhere from 50 to 90% of unemployed people globally. How come most companies don’t want to hire disabled/mentally ill people? Well, let’s look at the different types of jobs there are.
For starters, there are physical/manual labor jobs that require you to pick up heavy objects and move around all the time. As you can tell, these types of jobs are already unavailable to those who are physically disabled. That’s not to say these jobs shouldn’t have standards- there’s a reason why they do. But what about checker jobs that require you to stand around in one spot for hours on end? Does that really require a whole lot of physical strength? In some European countries, some cashiers are allowed to sit while doing their jobs, so what’s America’s excuse? Is it just considered lazy to sit while on the job? I mean, you’re in the same place for hours on end all day, so why disallow the chair?
“Emily, there are always office jobs for those who want to sit down while working,” you might be saying. And that’s fair. Not everyone can handle the challenges associated with physical labor, and that’s okay. Those people need jobs, too. But there are also standards for office jobs as well. For starters, you need a lot of social skills for meetings and small talk. You also need a lot of patience when it comes to dealing with customers and clients. Actually, you need a lot patience for any job. Not everyone with a mental illness has that much patience; I know my mother doesn’t. I’m also not the most sociable person on the planet (Thanks, autism.), so small talk can be really difficult for me. There’s also the fact that a lot of workplaces and school don’t have very clear directions sometimes, which can be really stressful for someone like me.
And don’t get me started on interviews! Ugh, those are the worst! The small talk, the anticipation of whether or not you’re gonna get that job, wondering if you’re dressed appropriately or not, wondering if your ticks or stims are hurting your chances of employment even though you can’t help doing them, wondering if your answers are good enough or whether you’re actually telling the truth (even though it’s recommended), trying to focus on the interview despite the millions of distractions going on in one room, being too afraid to ask for detailed explanations, and so much more! I already have a work-from-home job, yet typing all of this still exhausted me! How do neurotypical people do it?! How do they survive like this?!
Now, am I saying we should all cater to disabled/mentally ill people no matter what? No. Am I saying that disabled/mentally ill people should suck it up and deal with the neurotypical world because the world sucks and is unfair? No. I just want a compromise. Just give us the proper accommodations, explain things more clearly to us, and please, please, try to understand why we show our symptoms when we’re stressed out and try not to kill us. That’s literally all I’m asking for here, okay? It’s a simple request, and I’m so tired of it being denied so much. Give us disabled/mentally ill people a chance. Try to see where we’re coming from. Thank you.
