Disabled can mean so many things

my first time going to school I don’t remember being scared I was one of the only students not crying. I remember finding my name at the desk and talking and coloring with my peers. At this point in my life I was already diagnosed with my type of blindness. I remember my teaching getting mad at me because I had on “sunglasses” that was a no no in class. So she had to call my mom and set up a meeting to discuss this issue. All the appropriate people attended and my mother showed up with several documents and signed doctors notes to explain to the school and my teacher my disability. I can remember sitting in the classroom listening to all these big words being read and getting glances from the nurse and principal. I was starting to fidget and sensed the conversation take on a aggressive tone. There was so many things being said by the school employees then my mom that I can’t remember all of it in its entirety. The one thing I will never forget from that day was what my teacher had said and I quote “I do not want this child in my class because someone like her will bring my class average down, I will have to dumb down my curriculum in order to accommodate her. How will I help my other students if all my time is on her making sure she understands. You really should just put her in special ed that’s were the disabled students belong the curriculum is more their speed there.” As you can imagine like any other parent my mom flipped out I was ushered out of the room but I remember the yelling I’m sure knowing my mom a punch was probably thrown. I have grown up hearing things like that my whole life even till this day. I just can’t imagine saying something like that to anyone let alone a child. Come to think of it my first bully was the very person who was supposed to help me while I was at school that’s laughable. It was right then that I understood no one would help me everyone just wanted to push the disabled in a room and have them color till it was time to go home. I knew there was nothing wrong with my brain I could learn just like my peers, so why was this teacher being so mean. I was driven to prove her wrong and I did. I switched classes the following day but I made sure that I was the smartest and I was my state testing scores always were the highest in my grade. I always had straight A’s I refused to miss a day of school. I can remember at our end of the year assembly coming home with so many certificates, ribbons, and trophies because of my test scores. I would like to think the teacher regretted her choice of words but I’ll never know. I never knew what happened to her after I left that school but it amazes me how a room full of people heard what she said and this lady’s still managed to keep her job, these days she would have been blacklisted from working with children. My question is why when people hear the word disabled a good portion of peoples thoughts go straight to mental disability?

To be continued