I blame the ‘group home’ concept. Why take people from a large, safe facility and move them to a subdivision that looks like a residential home? At the larger facility, there are many staff that can watch for abuse, unlike in a group home there are a very few staff members, so it is easier to abuse the residents. The place is not as safe, it costs more, the residents have to be transported everywhere for care, education, etc., whereas at a large facility there are on staff professionals in facility.
Blame everyone but the officer who shot him.
I agree with you on this. I used to work in a group home.
I also have a problem with mainstreaming badly handicapped children with their functional peers.
My mother was a teacher for the handicapped back in the 70’s. The kids got massage therapy and one-on-one educational therapy. For some, it took years to learn how to use a spoon or crawl. Speech therapy. There were 6 children for each teacher and each child had a personal aid. These kids improved!
When my kids were in school just a few years ago I went up to observe a classroom. In the back is a severely handicapped child strapped into a wheelchair. His mind was at the level of a 2 year old. They just rolled him from class to class. He wasn’t getting a damn thing out of US History or algebra. He needed to be working on basic motor functions.
But we don’t want these kids to ‘feel left out’. So instead of actually giving them what they need, we put on a farce and pretend that they’re perfectly healthy.