it is like that kat. abs always thought the disabled
would steal. i was accused in my high school years. my
mother happened to be there and demanded a partial
search. of course they found nothing on me and she
proceded to chew out the manager of the store. no ADA
back then so all they got was the arse chewing.
--- Kat <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> 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 disabled students who were
> mobility-impaired. (I
> say "mobility-impaired" because at the time 30-some
> years ago, there were
> no accommodations 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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