http://www.democraticunderground.com/1002622380Oh my.
Omaha Steve (31,802 posts) Profile Journal Send DU Mail Ignore
Disabled teen doesn't make Aurora cheerleading squads
http://www.omaha.com/article/20120428/NEWS01/704289910#disabled-teen-doesn-t-make-aurora-cheerleading-squads
Photo: http://www.omaha.com/apps/pbcsi.dll/bilde?Site=OW&Date=20120428&Category=NEWS01&ArtNo=704289910&Ref=AR&maxw=600&maxh=400
Julia Sullivan of Aurora, Neb., who was born without legs and with arms that end above her elbows, practices for cheerleading tryouts while her mother, Carolyn, and her sister, Emily Peterson, videotape her performance.
The fourth time apparently won't be the charm for Julia Sullivan, the disabled Aurora, Neb., girl who has sought to become a cheerleader.
Tryouts were held Thursday to select next year's cheerleading squads at Aurora High School. Results were posted Friday evening.
But Julia's name was not on the list for any of the three squads for 2012-13, her senior year.
Mike Sullivan, Julia's father, said his daughter was disappointed.
Click this link to watch video of Julia practicing her cheers with her family at home: http://www.omaha.com/article/20120428/NEWS01/704289910#video
FULL story at link.
DontTreadOnMe (1,307 posts) Profile Journal Send DU Mail Ignore
1. They should have made her the Captain of the Squad!
What's wrong with Americans?!?
Stories like this make me want to drive to Omaha and just SCREAM at the entire group... but then I would probably be arrested.
Uh.
Aurora's about halfway across Nebraska, from Omaha.
Somebody needs to pick up a geography book.
pipoman (7,716 posts) Profile Journal Send DU Mail Ignore
2. Aurora was a great place to grow up..
I know the people of Aurora and they are fair..
Yeah, the people of Aurora, Nebraska probably are fair.
CreekDog (31,306 posts) Profile Journal Send DU Mail Ignore
3. Without regard to fairness, the ADA law applies to this public school and reasonable accommodation should be offered.
And.....your point being?
ladjf (11,951 posts) Profile Journal Send DU Mail Ignore
4. If a male with similar disabilities had tried out for one of the athletic teams, should he have been accommodated? What about trying out for the debate team by an autistic child?
elehhhhna (25,694 posts) Profile Journal Send DU Mail Ignore
6. funny you mention that...
i doubt a severely physically disadvanged child could make the cheersquad. hell, i have all my limbs and didn't make it, either.
AND: in HS back in '78 our sister school had a kid with MD. Chuck. He joined the speech team and could barely speak understandably...or hold his head up straight. Or gesture. Wheelchair bound, and dependent on people pushing it for him...
He competed anyway. Reading prose. It was painful and courageous.
By senior year he COULD hold his head up, could gesture with his arms. COULD roll his own chair with his arm power. Could speak clearly enough...
They paired him with their best actor, dramatic duet, a 5 minute cut from Arthur Miller's All My Sons. Chuck played the father.
They went to STATE!
On their own merit. Seriously.
Our team, the current and future stae champion team (we were frikking fantastic), on hearing at Regional Awards that Chuck and Rick had placed and were going to state finals, cheered them louder than we ever cheered ourselves.
It was AWESOME.
ladjf (11,951 posts) Profile Journal Send DU Mail Ignore
11. Good for them. They accommodated him in ways that were possible. Where adjustment can be
done, they should be done even it it stretches the limits sometime.
Regrading cheer leading requirements:Those squads are usually made up of students that are skilled gymnasts. If the handicapped child had been selected, she couldn't have participated in much of their activities.
CreekDog (31,306 posts) Profile Journal Send DU Mail Ignore
9. i understand, though i know there is a way to include the severely disabled in all facets of life
and i don't mean as a matter of law, at this point.
what i mean is that this group is probably the most impoverished group in the nation, the most unemployed, the most UNDERUTILIZED, at a time when this country needs more help than ever.
and working to see that people from all facets and varying abilities are included in all sorts of areas, in ways, perhaps that are difficult to even comprehend, will make our nation better.
just like it was inconceivable at one time, not so long ago that a black man with a name like Barack Obama could be elected president, a lot of things that are hard to conceive are ultimately quite do-able in the long run.
and the funny thing is that all the decades and centuries of work that were an important part of making sure it could happen --all those efforts made us better as a nation for trying.
all i'm asking is that just because you can't conceive of it, don't shut it down.
the accommodations the parents and school district made were not the end of this story --they are a beginning. like the other poster has responded to you, the reason i'm writing this is to get you to think bigger, grander.
i'm sure there will be a time, maybe in our lifetimes when sports will be played by people you can't even conceive of now and on teams most would think are impossible today.
Bleed me your heart, dumpshit.
Despite "special accommodations," I assure you franksolich is the
last person one wants as an office receptionist or dispatcher for the police or firemen.
As for the bold phrase above, that's your only relevant comment, dumpshit.
One can blame that on ADA, that there's fewer "handicapped" people gainfully employed today, than there were before ADA was even thought of.
Also, it's rather presumptuous to think "disabled" people necessarily want to be involved in things normal people are involved in. I've watched hearing people all my life, and trust me, hearing people indulge in a great many things I wouldn't touch with a ten-foot primitive.
It's like we're too simple-minded to develop our own tastes, our own interests?
dumpshit needs to think about this.
With friends like dumpshit, we "handicapped" don't need any enemies.
And now, I'm dedicated to boosting dumpshit for inclusion in the Top DUmmies of 2012.....
ladjf (11,951 posts) Profile Journal Send DU Mail Ignore
16. This thread began with the statement that a student with no arms or legs didn't make the cheer leading squad. There are NO students, anywhere, who have no arms or legs, participating on any of the active sports that require running, catching, hitting or body contact.
Please spare me the "I must be clueless" insults.
If you have in mind some sort of "mascot" or physically inactive type of status, then state what you have in mind.
AmazingSchnitzel (33 posts) Profile Journal Send DU Mail Ignore
8. Most disabled people I know...
... would want to earn their spot legitimately and despise pity above all else.
Granted, most of the disabled folks I know were able bodied at one point but that's my $.02.
alphafemale (12,098 posts) Profile Journal Send DU Mail Ignore
10. How many ABLE bodied teens didn't make the squad.
Disappointment makes you grow.
True.
Very true.
Pisces (3,458 posts) Profile Journal Send DU Mail Ignore
14. I read these stories and feel for both the parents and the child, why not focus on what the child can physically do instead of out of reach goal? As a job, this girl will not be able to do physical labor in the same way another adult will. Why not hone the skills she has. I understand that most girls want to be the popular cheerleader, maybe she can be the President of her class, etc. Channel her energies where she can succeed and feel positive about herself.
Uh huh.
