General Chat

My friend's grandson has decided that he does not much like people with Downs Syndrome.

The reason for this is that his special needs football team was in with a very good chance of winning the trophy had the Downs Syndrome boy not kicked in five own goals.

You do not dislike a whole group of people because one person does something wrong, whether as simple as own goals in a football game or killing people.

That is verging on prejudice, and going back to what Downs Syndrome people faced years ago.

One dislikes a person for what they do or have done ................. though one should always be compassionate in cases like this.

It might be hard to get that over to someone who himself is special needs!


That's just my view of life!

Drat!!!


The RR'er struck while I was typing my response!

stupid person!!

I'm sure your friends young relation will think differently once the little goal scorer works out where the opposition goal is! :-D

(I read it before it was reported)

Sylvia, I'm sure the little boy who made the comment was also special needs - they were in the same team.

I read that post and couldn’t decide if It was supposed to be a joke or if it was a genuine story, either way it was quite distasteful and offensive

Have you ever worked with special needs children?
Some can be be 'straight down the line'.

Without having reference to the OP which I only saw very briefly before it went. It depends on the response to it doesn't it? Did the team captain/coach/parent explain?

As the child has special needs himself then it may need careful explanation that the actions of the other child were not deliberate nor representative of all people who have Downs syndrome. And that winning is not always the point of doing something.

btw there might be several reasons why this was reported I think? One might be that it's about a third party or it might be reported because you are applying the word "prejudice" to a situation which in light of the child's own special needs might be too strong a word?

Do YOU think it was "prejudice" that will stick or just an exasperated comment in the heat of the moment.

I also read the opening post and found nothing distasteful or offensive about it. I thought it was a good subject for discussion. It was about the feelings of children and how these feelings might lead to prejudice.

maggie ..........

I did realise that it was a "special needs team", that is why I posted as I did ..........

"It might be hard to get that over to someone who himself is special needs!"

Missed the OP......rough idea from above comments but that's all. :-(

Thanks for a PM to basically explain the OP.
Sounds like the itchy finger jumped to conclusions again.

Caroline .............

yep!!

I really hope that GR also sees it that way,reads the comments here from those who did read the OP, and does not remove the thread.

To be honest, I can relate somewhat to the lads feelings. Having found that I was being cheated on with a girl called Bronwen, For many years, I had a real down on the Welsh.

Actually, it turned out that she came from Arundel.

Eventually, after I had visited Wales and understood my error, Bronwen and I saw the scabby piece of gristle through his last chaotic years between us and I comforted her at his funeral.

the lad will probably grow out of this dislike, in time, although " Prejudice?" don't think so .... 'tis much on the lines of tarring car drivers' because they drive a particular car...
you know the ones. that
hog the outside lane on motoways, never seem to use indicators, etc.....

I can see where the lad was coming from! Are 'special needs' kids not allowed to feel disappointment and injustice?
I'd love to know why the OP was seen as 'quite distasteful and offensive'

To me it sounds like a spur of the moment thing that children say when they have been disappointed by losing a match and can see the reason why. Sharron you don't say how old the grandson is. Possibly somebody said something like 'he didn't know any better' then related that he had Downes Syndrome and the grandsom will have immediately said what he did. But it would be interesting to know if they were all special needs.

.... hog the outside lane....never use indicators.... Coppers, you mean?

They were all special needs, teenagers I think, playing in their special league.

Ah so probably inevitable that somebody would say something inappropriate.

Good to see the OP is restored.