A guy with Down syndrome becomes a web victim, and his parents sue

How horrified would you be if your child's photo spread around the web with a derogatory caption?

How horrified would you be if your child had Down syndrome and the caption was a slur against people with special needs?

It's happened, and you don't need to be those parents to feel their horror. Now, they're suing in what's said to be the first case of its kind.

It's about time some haters got their due.

Pamela and Bernard Holland are parents to Adam, who has DS; they live in Nashville. At 17, Adam took an art workshop in which he made a sketch that read "Go Titans One." A photo of him holding it went online (you can see it here). And then, it got swiped and people started writing nasty captions. It ended up on the website of Sarasota, Florida radio station WHPT-FM, with the sign Adam holding Photoshopped to read "Retarded News."

"Retarded News" is a segment on The Cowhead Show, one of the radio station's programs. It's designed, court papers say, "to highlight odd stories that are seemingly always in the news. These stories are NOT about disabled individuals."

That may be true, but a radio segment labeled "Retarded News" is offensive to anyone with intellectual disability—it's equating them with weird, stupid stuff. (If you are new here and don't totally get why the word "retard" demeans, read this.) The Cowhead Show still has a YouTube video up called "Retarded News Theater" with a voiceover by a man speaking in a slow, slurred voice. You'd have to be a pretty pathetic human being to find that amusing.

The Hollands are suing the parent company of the radio station, Cox Media Group, along with the Sign Generator website and a Flickr user for featuring images of their son with derogatory captions. Sadly, I've seen photos of Adam online with these captions; I never knew who he was until now. I've seen it happen to other children and young adults with Down syndrome, too. You might recall that something similar happened to Heidi Crowter, a young woman with Down syndrome. A photo of her as a child was stolen online and, for years, used in a nasty photo meme, often with the words "I can count to potato." Heidi's mother put up a Facebook page begging sites to take down the photo.

The Hollands' lawsuit won't stop the slurs, of course. Perhaps the case will establish legal precedents, however, for misappropriating images online. Meanwhile, these parents are sending a message: You can't make people with special needs the victims of defamation and cruelty online without consequences, legal or moral. And they're raising more awareness about an awful word that's no joke if you are a person who's intellectually disabled, or you love someone who is.

Image: Flickr/Hryck.

The death of Dee Spears: Could Botox injections hurt your child?

This morning, I called the doctor who gives Max Botox injections and left a voicemail about scheduling an appointment; his occupational therapist at school says she thinks his thumbs are getting much tighter. The Botox injections Max has gotten over the years have really helped loosen up his tightness and made it easier for him to pick up and grasp things.

This afternoon I found out about little Dee Spears, whose mother is suing the makers of Botox for causing her death. Dee, a 7-year-old with cerebral palsy from Potters County, Texas, had been getting injections in her legs to alleviate muscle spasms. Evidently, she started having issues with breathing and swallowing afterward. She died in 2007 from respiratory failure and pneumonia. Her mother is saying an overdose of Botox caused her death; Allergan, the company that makes Botox, is blaming a bacterial issue unrelated to Botox. The case is being tried in court now.

My heart aches for this mother, whose grief must surely be laced with so much anger, perhaps even guilt. Botox was supposed to improve her child's life; instead, it might have killed her.

If you're a mom of a kid with special needs you know just what it's like to want to do something, anything, to help your child, enable him function, allow him to live a life less challenged.

Have you tried, or considered, Botox for your child?