*SOTOS MAMA BEAR RANT WARNING*

    It burns me up whenever older people say " I think [insert whatever socially-approved scapegoat is trending here] is responsible for people with like Autism, SOTOS, and/or Down Syndrome, etc. You just didn't see those kind of things when we were in school & now they seem to be everywhere." Well Huckleberry, THATS BECAUSE YOU DIDNT SEE THEM.

    Basic Human rights for people with disabilities is a fairly recent development in our country. Parents who delivered children with any sort of disability were encouraged by doctors AT BIRTH to place these children in government ran institutions, telling parents these were the best places for their kids. Many Many parents took their doctor's advice & gave up their children to these "institutions". I suggest to anyone brave or curious enough to wonder what these institutions were like to read the book "Christmas in Purgatory" It showcases a collection of images of these institutions. I will warn you, anyone with even a remote semblance of humanity will see these images and cry. These pictures were taken in 1966. So yes Huckleberry, You didn't see them, but they were there.

    These institutions ran until roughly the 1980's and sadly their horrors reached far beyond these pictures. Until 1974 , people could & were encouraged to sterilize those with physical, developmental and/or mental disorders often against their will or knowledge [see the 1927 case: Buck vs. Bell]. The state of Virginia didn't repeal that law until 1974, other states didn't follow suit until 1979. Let that sink in my generation. Many of our parents & certainly our grandparents were alive in a time where if you were blind, deaf, autistic, depressed, homosexual, epileptic or otherwise physically disabled you could be sterilized against your will by the government. And many were. So yes Huckleberry, You didn't see them. But they were there.

    So sure this explains why you didn't see them in the community but what about schools? Surely not every mother gave up their child. We think of a right to an education for our children to be a basic American right from birth. But children with special needs weren't awarded that "Right" until 1975 with the "Education for all Handicapped Children Act". And I can tell you that act went about as well as the desegregation of schools in the south went in the 60's. This means that those children who weren't given up from birth weren't even given the right to get an education. It was up to the principals to decide if they wanted to take in that "burden". Many did not. Many fought against allowing children like those by citing social & financial reasons. It was quite a fight for many parents to get their children the same right to a "free public education" as their typically developed peers. Some may say the fight is over seeing as the "Education for all Handicapped Children Act" was reformed and renamed the "Individuals with Disabilities Education Act [IDEA]" in 1990, but I challenge those people to attend an IEP meeting and tell me the fight is over for our children.

    So yes Huckleberry, you didn't see them in your community or your schools but they were there. THEY WERE ALWAYS THERE. This isn't  some new phenomenon caused by vaccines or foods or [insert whatever asinine explanation you want here]. THEY. WERE. ALWAYS.HERE. They're just no longer hiding. You just see them now. #theywerealwaysthere #seemenow #basicrights #disabiltyawareness #autismawareness #knowyourhistory