Child abuser Keith Randal (Randy) Short has died.
I had direct contact with this man often as he encouraged thousands of other parents to abuse their disabled children by forcing chlorine dioxide into all their orifices.
These practices continue to this day.
Until society accepts that disabled people need support for their disabilities rather than eradication of their differences, the abuses will continue and authorities will be lax in responding.
We need to save the individuals, but arguing about your method versus my method is not the answer. We need to fight the hatred of disability which leads parents to do such things to their children, to the praise of all the fine upstanding citizens who think they are doing the best they can in a desperate situation.
They are not.
Ableist parents destroy disabled children’s lives. It is never safe for a disabled child to reveal the extent of their suffering to a parent whose conscience is seared by their hatred for their child’s disability.
These parents live among us. They run schools, they write books, they are columnists for newspapers. They are in your church and your synogogue. They call themselves warriors. Our society calls them heroes. They feed on other parents’ fears.
Listen to disabled people and stop expecting them to be your inspiration. Listen when disabled people tell you there is torture and abuse under your very nose. The perpetrators live among you.
When we call you to stand with the victims, do it. Be the other kind of parent, the kind that listens to people like your disabled child. Be the other kind of citizen, the one that lets disabled people speak for themselves.