I read a lot of blog posts and news stories each day while adding to the Daily News page and, you know, procrastinating from real work, and every day I see stories that break my heart or raise my blood pressure. Many more good and upbeat and useful posts, too, but it's the angry ones that get under your skin and occupy your thoughts and make you snap at your children. Below are three stories I've seen over the last week that have been festering in my brain. I could probably write an angry post about each of them, but instead I'll pass them on to get your pulse pumping and your Monday off to a righteously indignant start. You're welcome.
+ Tracy Morgan, who last year compared young men with intellectual disabilities to chimps, joked around about special-education students with Jimmy Fallon on a recent Late Night. According to a post on HuffPost Comedy (and boy, is the term "comedy" being used loosely here), Morgan "had some less-than-kind material on New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady. Joking that he and Brady 'went to special-ed school together' and that Brady wore a crash helmet on a short bus." Nothing funnier than making fun of kids with disabilities, is there? Har de har har.
+ In an editorial in the Irish Examiner, a psychologist opined that autism is not a scientific fact, but merely the result of "children ... defending themselves against the absence of expressed love and affection and emotional receptivity." You mean, like, their moms are refrigerators? Novel idea! You can read one mom's response to the editorial on the blog The Voyage, and read the complete text and add your own outrage on the Irish Autism Action Facebook page.
+ A Florida special-education teacher thought that a good way to keep her students from chewing on crayons would be to dip the crayons in hot sauce. She's been removed from the classroom, and the district superintendent has called for her firing. Training teachers in behavioral techniques more advanced than aversives might also be a good idea, there, superintendent, while you're at it. You can read more about the story in a blog post on Care2.
Have you seen any recent stories that have made you shake your head or your fist? Share them in the comments, and I'll work them into this round-up or a future one.