For Future Educators of America (FEA) members, it is important to inform the Point Park community about the misuse and hurtfulness of the “r-word.”
To help raise awareness, FEA is hosting an event April 13 in Village Park from 11-2 p.m. for the Spread the Word to End the Word campaign. The primary goal is to encourage others to refrain from saying “retarded.”
“The Spread the Word to End the Word event is to show people around campus about not using the ‘r-word…,’” FEA Vice President Cassandra Sader, a pre-kindergarten-fourth grade and special education major, said in a phone interview Sunday afternoon. “We are going to tell them how it feels when people hear it around campus, around everywhere. It will be a nice event just to get the word out there.”
The event will include signing a banner to pledge not to use the “r-word.” Laptops will also be available at the event to officially pledge online at www.r-word.org.
Spread the Word to End the Word is a campaign that was started by two college students, Soeren Palumbo from Notre Dame and Tim Shriver from Yale, in 2009. The message is supported by Best Buddies, Special Olympics and 200 other organizations, according to their website.
“People pledge to try and stop using the ‘r-word,’” said Dominique Furrowh, a senior education major and FEA president, in a phone interview Thursday afternoon.
Jessica Frick, a member of FEA and junior education major, said after recent governmental change the term is no longer “mental retardation.”
“It was causing stereotypes for these individuals before people even met them, so this is kind of a way to tell people like, ‘Hey, this isn’t used anymore,’” Frick said in a phone interview Saturday night.
The new term to reference is “intellectual disabilities.”
“It is ‘intellectual disability’ now, so ‘retarded’ is not politically correct,” Furrowh said. “There are so many other words that can be used for it. Some people don’t think that they are doing any harm by it.”
Sader said others do not see how it can hurt someone by using the “r-word.”
“Personally, it really affects me because I have a reading disability, and I also know a lot of people with disabilities,” Sader said. “It is really close to home for me.”
After Sader heard it being used on campus, it inspired her and Furrowh to have the event.
“We do have a group of students here who do have disabilities, but are high-functioning,” Furrowh said. “So you might not even know that they have a disability, and they are just trying to get through the day. For them to hear that from members of our Point Park community shouldn’t be tolerated.”
In the special education program, students are taught to put the person before their disability; this is referred to as “person first language.” Frick said FEA also hopes to inform Point Park about this alternative when referring to anyone with a disability.
“Instead of saying an ‘autistic person,’ you would say, ‘a person with autism.’ Basically you are respecting the person first and then saying their disability,” Frick said. “You aren’t letting their disability determine the type of person that they are.”
FEA is hoping to teach the alternatives and to encourage the community to avoid labeling a group of people.
“I think the biggest thing we are hoping to accomplish is to show that there is a better way to say it so that these people don’t get labeled just because of a term that was made how many years ago by certain people,” Frick said.
Furrowh said FEA also invited other programs to come be a part of the event, including one on campus called City Connections.
City Connections is a transition program available for students through the Pittsburgh Public Schools and Point Park is a school that hosts it in this area. It is located on the seventh floor of Academic Hall in the education department.
“City Connections helps students with disabilities transition to jobs, life skills and just school here,” Furrowh said. “So we have invited them to come down and pledge, but also talk to people.”
Along with making students aware of the issue, FEA would like to inform others about their club on campus as well.
“We are trying really hard to make sure that Future Educators of America is well known on Point Park’s campus, but also this issue that is going on at campus,” Sader said.
This event will be held in Village Park. Weather permitting, the rain location is in the West Penn lobby.
If interested in learning about the campaign, students can go to www.r-word.org. Students can also join in on FEA’s Instagram by using #ppuspreadtheword and can enter to win a prize through the ongoing social media contest.
