As if adolescence for young girls were not stressful enough with periods they don’t understand (nor will they ever have any use for), hormones confusing them as to why they should not be allowed to kiss people they want to kiss and keeping over zealous males from (well) being boys.
You may or may not of heard a recent decision by an United Airlines pilot to make an emergency landing to eject a family with their autistic 16yo daughter because they believed it was in the best interests of the other passengers.
What a load of bullshit.
It was a total misunderstanding of autistic child and it is riddled with bigotry.
The trouble with this case is it paints a poor picture of special needs parents to the already widely uneducated public about special needs. The reporting of the situation also alluded to the thought that as special needs parents we were demanding, manipulative and selfish.
The reality is for most of us, the complete opposite is true.
Is the special needs parent involved in this case any of the above?
Well, I don’t know.
I do know that if my daughter liked hot meals that I would have prepared for that scenario. The mother stated that the daughter rejected the meal she had brought her, so it’s not like she didn’t try to accommodate her daughter.
I think there are a few stories going around about what was and wasn’t said and done. So it’s hard to see the truth in this story. I certainly don’t like to hear of a special needs child put under any duress (or their family for that matter) – I don’t normally care too much for the rest of the public because – you’ll get over it, but we get it 24/7 for the rest of our lives – so cut us some slack and take a chill pill after your brief encounter with one of us!
I feel the mother may have made a mistake with the daughter’s meal plan (which is totally understandable because kids do change their mind and no they don’t tell us in advance they are going to change their mind), and when she reached out to attendants for help, she was denied. Unfortunately in trying to manipulate the staff to reconsider provide some help (ie. saying if her daughter didn’t get the hot meal she may “ark up”) she may have done herself a disservice here.
Then of course, another ignorant passenger on the plane weighed in by stating she agreed the family should be ejected because “What if she got crazy and got up and opened an exit door at 36,000 feet?”
WTF?
Despite Marilyn’s many years on earth, apparently dear old Marilyn has no real understanding of special needs so here is my message to her: No special needs parent is going to let a 16 yo girl open a plane door mid air – no matter how hungry they are.
Poor Marilyn thinks 16yo autistic girls can become monsters if they don’t eat. No Marilyn, they don’t. They just let their mum know in the best way they can that they aren’t happy, but don’t worry, you’re safe.
But here is the real lie, the real disgrace and the reason I would now never fly United Airlines, they made a public statement when the spokesperson for United told the local TV station that it had done everyone it could to defuse the situation.
BUT THIS IS A COMPLETE LIE.
If they did everything they could, why didn’t they serve a $10 hot meal from first class which is what the mother was asking. Sanctimonious lying cunts. That’s what they are. They need to take a long hard look at themselves and what they stand for.
Bigotry is written all the United Airlines brand for me.
Their hostesses who refused to get the hot meal, the pilot who landing abruptly to eject them, and then there loyal fellow patron the dear old Marilyn who thought the plane might be doomed mid air by 16yo Juilette because she didn’t get a hot meal and she would slam dunk open the doors to jump to a hot meal on the ground.
You know what I think about all this, people just didn’t like the howling noises that Juliette made from time to time, a side effect of her condition. Noises her mother would have been oblivious to because we become deaf to noise and sounds we hear over and over. But the other passengers, the hostesses and the pilot all thought the howling was the preface to a mid air onslaught attack and they were all potential targets.
In any event, I’ve put up with this kind of bigotry before, by people who have no idea how special needs kids will act or react in certain circumstances. Let’s hope over time we can show them there is nothing to fear, their lives are safe around our kids.
This is not the first case of United Airlines staff behaving abhorrently, there was the special needs child that required to sit on her mum’s lap because she could not sit up and their response was she had to lay across all the seats then on take off and landing – how does that better secure her??
I’m sure there are many more cases.
I love this tweet:
Indeed Mr Olivito has got it right.
Just be human.
