President Obama honored Rosa Marcellino, who inspired Rosa’s Law. The legislation will replace “mentally retardation” with “intellectual disability” in federal statues, such as health and education.
Rosa has down syndrome, but she probably has been called “retarded” or “mentally retarded” many times. Will her law prevent people from referring to her as a “retard”? The law definitely will curtail it, but it won’t stop some people from treating Rosa or any other person with an intellectual or communication disability as a vegetable or from calling her the derogatory terms.
As a supplement to Rosa’s Law, parents and schools need to teach kids to treat everyone with respect. The media also has to contribute by focusing more on bullying of students with intellectual and other disabilities. A single law can’t change attitudes just like that; it also takes each one of us to open minds and hearts.
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