Photos: Andrea Johnston
On March 1, Huntsville High School (HHS) had a banner and pledge signing to encourage students and staff to stop using the r-word. The main stairway was filled with students ready to pledge and find a better word. Huntsville High was among many places to host a Spread the Word to End the Word event.
HHS student and co-organizer Abby Witterick told us why it is important for students to be aware of the day and what it stands for. “We had the opportunity to attend a couple of conferences about the use of the r-word and we learned about how it affects people and how we see it in our own school. There is some separation between people who have disabilities compared to people who don’t and we are trying to find the good things in people rather than the downfalls,” she said. “(To) have people with disabilities have to hear the negative r-word around them, it’s like hearing a swear word around anyone else. It makes them feel put down.”
Co-organizer Chantel Musselman told us why the banner signing was held. “Well, it is national r-word day in Canada… It has been held (at HHS) for the last three years and our adult ally Andrea Johnston (from Community Living Huntsville) always helps us out with choosing what to do every year.”
Chantel and Abby said they were extremely excited to see the number of supporters who came out to sign – the banner was almost completely covered in pledges. The r-word website received almost 700,000 online pledges.
Our focus is to bring awareness to the fact that the ‘r-word’ hurts,” said Andrea Johnston, Manager, Quality and Community Development for Community Living Huntsville. “It is an offensive word and we want people to consider the impact of their words. Language affects attitudes, attitudes affect actions. Community Living Huntsville promotes this international campaign and has held events in the past to bring awareness to the broader community.” She noted that People First Huntsville is an autonomous self-advocacy group that holds an awareness campaign every year in our community. “They speak to the fact that language matters; words do hurt.”
Even though Spread the Word to End the Word day only happens once a year, it doesn’t mean we can’t spread the word every day. If you want to sign the pledge to end the demeaning use of the r-word, visit r-word.org and click Pledge.
Cole Clarke
My name is Cole Clarke. I am currently 16 and attempting to make it through Huntsville High School. I am a huge sports fan, at certain times too much of one. When I’m not screaming at my TV cheering for my favourite teams you can find me at my second home, the arena. I play midget hockey and plan to represent my hometown playing for the Junior C Huntsville Hawks lacrosse team. I have always been a fan of writing. I plan to attend college to pursue a Sports Journalism career. I am quite excited to be writing my first articles for Huntsville Doppler.
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The campaign, Spread the word to end the word, is to bring awareness to how hurtful the use of the word ‘retarded’ is. Thank you for asking.
What is the r-word? Racism?