by Ashley Moreno on Down Syndrome
Children with disabilities are three times more likely to be the victims of sexual abuse than their neurotypical peers. And this risk doesn’t decrease as they get older.
Our kids are more likely to be bullied, and adults are less likely to recognize them as victims of bullying.
When children with disabilities are segregated in schools, they are often seen as second-rate citizens, “weird” outsiders who don’t belong. And when they don’t develop relationships with their peers, they become vulnerable to those who would hurt them. By segregating them, we are denying them membership in a society that looks out for its members, while forcing them into a construct that makes it easy for predators to target them. Click here to read more