Teachers union president apologizes for remarks about ‘chronically tarded’ and ‘medically annoying’ kids
The president of the nation’s largest teachers union has apologized for referring to “chronically tarded” and “medically annoying” children, remarks that drew stiff rebukes from parents of children with special needs and others in the disability rights community.
“Open mouth. Insert foot. That’s what I did,” Lily Eskelsen Garcia, president of the National Education Association, wrote on her blog. “Epic fail. In my attempt to be clever and funny, I stepped on a word in one phrase, and I created another phrase that I believed was funny, but was insulting. I apologize.”
Eskelsen Garcia made the remarks during an Oct. 27 speech addressing the Campaign for America’s Future. Speaking about her frustration with people who don’t understand the full range of what schools do, she rattled off a long litany of teachers’ responsibilities.
“We serve kids a hot meal. We put Band-Aids on boo-boos,” she said. “We diversify our curriculum instruction to meet the personal individual needs of all of our students the blind, the hearing impaired, the physically challenged, the gifted and talented, the chronically tarded and the medically annoying.”
The video of her talk made the rounds on social media as many teachers applauded Eskelsen Garcia’s sentiment: Being a great teacher is a difficult Teachers union president apologizes for remarks about ‘chronically tarded’ and ‘medically annoying’ kids - The Washington Post:
