Cub Scouts kick retarded kid out

[Wolfie]

Get Lost, Kid!

The Cub Scouts tell the mother of a retarded boy her son's no longer welcome

BY MALCOLM GAY

[email protected]

By Ryan Hudson

Cub Scout, interrupted: Christopher Lowe-Irby has been kicked out of Pack 765.

Week of October 20, 2004

Walk through the front yard of Renee and Terry Irby's Charlack home, and a cape-clad jack-o'-lantern crows out, "Happy Halloween!" The Irbys' yard, like the rest of their low-slung home off St. Charles Rock Road, is a frenzied tribute to the upcoming holiday. Plastic skulls peek out from the lawn. There are half-buried femurs, glow-in-the-dark footprints, a triple-stacked pumpkin balloon standing sentry and, of course, reams of orange-and-black window dressing.

But Halloween has been the last thing on Renee Irby's mind since she received a jarring letter from her son Christopher's Cub Scout pack.

"I didn't want to believe that my child had been discriminated against," says the 28-year-old mother of three. "The whole reason I put my kids in the Boy Scouts was to give them a sense of normalcy."

Normalcy has been in short supply for the young couple since they adopted Renee's two developmentally disabled nephews in May of last year. The seven- and nine-year-old boys only added to Irby's already hectic schedule of cleaning houses full-time and raising her three-year-old son. And Irby took on even more responsibility last year when she enrolled her middle child -- who has a low IQ -- in Wyland Elementary Cub Scout Pack 765 and became the "Tiger Cub Leader" for her boy's den.

"After about four meetings, people stopped showing up with their kids," says Irby, adding that the other scout leaders never made her feel welcome. "I felt very alienated the entire year. They kind of kept us separated from everybody."

For much of last year, Irby thought she was being paranoid. But her fears were confirmed last month when she received a letter from Cub Scout pack leaders Tim Huston and Sue Hummert barring her seven-year-old son from meetings and pack activities.

"After much consideration in regards to the Cub Scout program, the [Cub Scout Pack] Committee has concluded that Pack 765 does not offer an appropriate format for your son," states the September 24 letter, which is signed by Huston and Hummert.

http://www.riverfronttimes.com/issues/2004.../news/news.html

:reallymad: :reallymad: :reallymad: :reallymad:

[Redneck4sure]

That's a damn shame. :(

[Amber]

Oh my God...let me tell you! I would first of all be telling these people that this "mentally disabled" child/ren are people same as them. See this burns my ass something fierce...we are taught not to be predjudice but it only applies to color and religion mainly. We are not taught to accept ALL people no matter what. As long as they are "normal" well normal isn't always right!

All it is is that these two "leaders" were uncomfortable with this boy in their group...pretty damn funny huh? We're suppose to be the adults yet we are acting like children. So why not fire these two and hire someone who has their head screwed on straight? :angry: ; :reallymad:

[Malicious Intent]

When I worked on a play scheme, we also had some disabled children. If the child needed extra attention, we would provide the staff. The parents needed to provide the funding, but this could be claimed from the local council.

Sadly the staff were not always available. We often had to turn children away.

A couple of parents tried to enrol their kids without the one-to-one supervision. It was a very difficult situation to tell the parents that their kids need one-to-one care, especially if then we have to tell them that we cant provide it.

It needs to be remembered that untrained staff looking after a disabled child is as unfair to the kid as to the staff and other children.

Once you have tried to care for someone with a disability you don't understand - whilst trying to referee a game of bulldogs - I am sure you will understand.

Perhaps something longer term, specific training would be more feasible, but we dont know the circumstances. Training is expensive too. My 2 day course for general childcare cost my centre £200.

But scout mothers who spent months with Irby's son contend the seven-year-old never posed any behavioral problems. "He was a little slower than my child, but he participated just as well as mine did," says scout mother Amy Aubuchon. "He wasn't dangerous, or irate, or anything like that. He sat and did the same activities as my kid. He's a great kid. I never found anything wrong with him."

^ Makes me think this case may be different - but then why did so many kids start leaving? Because all the attention was going to one kid? Why did the troop take such a measure? It couldn't have been an easy letter to write. Perhaps because they felt unqualified and realised the situation was fair on no one.

[megabitch]

Those people are not aware of the illnesses there are, that can make a person 'disabled', long after they are grown up, like

parkinson

huntington

Creutzfeld Jacobs

a stroke

and similar.

You may never wish somebody to catch a desease like that..... but sometimes it is very difficult not to! [2finga'salute]

[slum_goddess]

most of my entire teaching thing was w/disabled kids (emotionally and physically); someone should 'educate' those who don't want him in. ;

[Redneck4sure]

I'm a retard.......one of you ladies want to come help me out???