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Havre High students pledge to end the ‘R-word’

Havre High School students joined a nationwide effort to stop derogatory language when the high school Key Club joined local Special Olympians to have people sign a computerized pledge to "End the R-word." Students signing the pledge during the "End the R-word Day" event, set up in the foyer of the high school, said saying "retard" or "retarded" should never happen, whether it is referring to people with developmental disabilities or not. Justin Jensen, who had just signed the pledge, said he did not believe he had ever called someone a "retard." "That's just not a nice thing to say," he said. "They're normal people just like us," Jensen added. The issue has come into the spotlight recently after White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel used the word "retarded" to describe liberal activists in the debate of the health care reform legislation working through Congress. Conservative commentator Rush Limbaugh added to the controversy when he repeatedly used the word in a radio show discussing Emanuel's comment. A spokesman for former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, the Republican 2008 vice-presidential candidate and mother of a child with Down syndrome, said she believes "crude and demeaning name calling at the expense of others is disrespectful," whenasked about Limbaugh's comments. The group organizing the pledge effort listed 101,002 pledges to "Help eliminate the R-word in everyday speech" on its Web site at 10:30 a.m. today. More than 100 took the pledge at Havre High. Groups around the country — the Web site says more than 200 organizations support the effort — held rallies Wednesday to get people to sign the pledge. Key Club members and Special Olympians showed movies about the effort on the wall by the high school gymnasium doors while they helped students sign the pledge on laptop computers. Special Olympian Tia Jo Hess, 16, said it is really important to get people to show respect to all. She said it hurts when people use that word. "All you have to do is walk away and ignore them," she added. Special Olympics Area Director Shaylee Lewis, a special education teacher at Havre High, said people at the high school generally are very respectful and accepting of people with developmental disabilities. At the same time, she said, it is important to raise awareness, especially in youth, that insults should not be made. "It's not respectful, it's hurtful," Lewis said. Chelsea Nottingham, the incoming president of the Havre High School Key Club, said after she signed the pledge that using any word to hurt others should end. "It's just another word that's derogatory in our language and doesn't need to be used," she said. Nottingham added that raising awareness in places like schools about how language can hurt people is important. "It's common in any immature setting," she said. ——— On the Net: http://www.r-word.org

 

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