[QUAD-L] (no subject)

[Oconnelldb]

Ohio SILC Council Members Dear Sirs and MSs, I am contacting all members described above about the treatment and responses to the abominable act of violence and disrespect of a few of the students at Mifflin High School towards a disabled student recently.   I am in a wheelchair since 1967 from a broken neck so I have more than a passing familiarity with the disabled lifestyle.  It is a testament to the unyielding human spirit that the disabled community survives and often thrives in our competitive society today.  We have fought and won so many personal battles that the normal pressures of society can be handled with relative ease.  Most strangers out in public are very friendly and helpful to the disabled community which makes this attack at the high school particularly disturbing.    I fully understand juvenile grouping and taunting of those outside the group.  We have all been part of such treatments from one side or the other.  The normal outcome of such interactions is usually a social lesson in group mentality with the object learning to seek their own group for solace and comfort.  As in our common laws, there's a big difference between words and actions.  Our right to express our opinions is protected under the United States Constitution, but our right to physically assault someone is not.   The fact that these young men attacked this disabled student is bad enough but the lack of proper response by the school faculty is totally against everything this country is built on.  I am relieved that this wasn't another story of a high school student massacre, but there is a very similar and disturbing negative social value undercurrent brewing in this group.    We are seeing renegade students violating common human values all over our country these days and the adults need to take a serious look at what values we are instilling in our young ones and what values we are allowing the 'street' to instill.    If you gloss over this one incident as a fluke or a normal one in a million unfortunate event, you are ignoring the obvious tip of the evil iceberg and are setting us all up for a future of horror in titanic proportion.  These young ones need to know that such behavior is unacceptable under ours and the common laws of nature, and the adults involved who ignored or covered up for their own reasons should be held accountable for social and moral insubordination.   The people addressed in this letter all are in the support chain of Mifflin as well as many other high schools.  If you don't handle this unfortunate event properly, you are opening a Pandora's box that will eventually erode our entire society.  These students in our high schools are our future and our dreams.  We can not afford to allow their values be molded by chance or primitive tribal processes.   Do not turn or cover your backs.   Dave O'Connell