For the special education department at LZHS, March 6th marked the beginning of a hopeful campaign to end the use of the word “retard” from everyday language.
S.N.A.P (special needs athletic program), Buddy Project, and Special Olympic participants spent the day wearing their “Spread the Word” T-shirts in order to raise awareness regarding the harmful effects of the “R” word. Matthew Milazzo, special education teacher, played an active role in the development of the campaign.
“There’s a lot of words we use lightly that do mean what they mean and get be really offensive to those with cognitive disorders,” Milazzo said. “So the idea was to spread awareness, and the day had really positive feedback.”
Rachel Young, a senior and S.N.A.P member, was not able to purchase a T-shirt given that the campaign was a somewhat last minute decision, but she says she appreciated the day and what it meant.
“I’ve done S.N.A.P for two years and been in the buddy project at school and it’s really been eye opening for me,” Young said. “I have friends with special needs and it hurts me to know that people will degrade them like that, so I hope the campaign will cause a chain reaction to opening people’s eyes.”
While the campaign was technically only one day this year, Milazzo hopes to make the campaign longer and community wide in the years ahead.
“I spoke with Erin Pitman (Assistant Superintendent of Student Services), and we’re looking forward to expanding it to the community for next year,” Milazzo said. “Everyone needs to start to get that [using that word] is not okay.”
Although the day has come and gone for 2013, T-shirts are still available for purchase on http://r-word.org for $15 which will go to the Special Olympics and the Buddy Project.