If the college was St, Andrews, in Laurinburg, I almost went there...
---- Original message ----
>Date: Mon, 3 Sep 2007 18:52:20 -0400
>From: Kathy <[log in to unmask]>
>Subject: An Incident From University
>To: [log in to unmask]
>
>I may have posted about this before, but I don't remember if I did; if I
>did, and it's redundant, I apologize.
>
>I went to university at a small four-year liberal arts college in NC that
>has a campus designed for disasbled students who were mobility-impaired. (I
>say "mobility-impaired" because at the time 30-some years ago, there were
>no accomodations for the deaf/HoH students, nor the blind, only those who
>were in wheelchairs or otherwise needed assistance getting around campus).
>This was back in the early 1970s and this campus at the time was one of the
>very few in the Southeast with ramps and electrical doors, so I was not the
>only disabled student on campus. In my third year, I had a dormitory
>suitemate, who I shall call "Judy," who was more severely affected with CP
>than I was and was confined to a wheelchair because she could not bend her
>legs at all. I believe she'd had surgery at one time in which the surgeons
>had removed tendons so she could not bend her legs but I really can't recall
>that aspect clearly.
>
>Now this campus was situated at the edge of a town whose population was
>little more than 50,000 and they saw us students as being strange creatures
>who ventured into town for beer and generally raising a ruckus and gasp!
>smoking that devil weed, "Mary Jane." (It was the early 70s, after all!).
>This is to say that while most of the townspeople I encountered were nice
>enough, there were a few who were, shall we say, the equivalent of the
>sheriff in the old Dodge commercials - good ol' boy Southern redneck types.
>
>This was the year I had an off-campus course 20 miles away and my dad let me
>have the extra family car. One Saturday Judy told me she needed some things
>from the local Roses Discount store and I offered to give her a lift. So I
>loaded her chair into the back of the car and off we went to Roses. We got
>Judy into the chair and went into Roses. I wandered away for a few minutes
>to make my own selections and then went off to find her. She was at the
>notions section, stuffing her purchases into a fishnet shopping bag since
>they didn't have any baskets and she didn't want a pushcart. We started to
>go to the counter to pay for our stuff when all of a sudden this big, burly
>(dare I say FAT) dude in uniform stepped out in front of us and declared we
>were under arrest for shoplifting! I was so gobsmacked, I couldn't say a
>word and poor Judy burst into tears. I guess that softened Mr. Hardass
>because he unbent and told us we could leave without arrest as long as we
>never came back into Roses again. I remember that as we scurried out of the
>store like frightened mice, Judy left her shopping bag where she'd dropped
>it, on the floor.
>
>The drive back to campus was needless to say, rather subdued. Neither of us
>spoke a single word. But as I parked the car in the parking lot and helped
>Judy out, she looked at me and said, "Now, Kat, don't say a word, please
>don't." I simply nodded and drove off to find a parking space.
>
>But the more I thought about it in the next few days, the madder I got.
>This was so unjust and unfair, and so damned illegal. So In spite of Judy's
>plea, I went to our Dean of Disabled Students, Dr. Decker and told him the
>whole story - I remember breaking down in tears after I'd got it all out and
>I hadn't realised how traumatic it was for me. He was furious. He
>immediately got on the phone and called the store manager and they
>apologised and said it was all a mistake. I even got a letter from the
>company lawyer a few days letter saying the same thing and the whole thing
>supposedly was swept under the rug and forgotten.
>
>But I never did and neither did Judy. She was so angry and upset and
>ashamed about the whole thing that she never forgave me for speaking to the
>dean and never spoke to me again if she could get away with it. I did write
>her a note a few years on but she wrote me back begging me not to write
>again so I guess it left a permanent scar. As for me, it took me years to
>walk into another Roses and even not I can't go into one without a frission
>of fear. As I look back on it now I feel so sad that such a small incident,
>really, had such power to destroy our self-confidence.
>
>So yes, bullying and not standing up for yourself can leave permanent
>scars. I'm so glad that people now have the avenue to sue and get
>compensation for things like this.
>
>Kat
>
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