Kuhn 1
Maggie Kuhn
Dr. Lowe
English 101-123
12 February 2015
No More Swallowing the 'R' Word
"Maggie, will you go with me down the water slide?" Jillian asked, pulling on my arm. I agreed and we walked hand in hand over to the slide on the other side of the water park. Jillian was about ten years old and was on one of the cheerleading teams at my aunt's gymnastics facility, Gymnastics Unlimited. At the time, my aunt's gym was hosting a summer camp and I, being an employee of Gymnastics Unlimited, was working it. Today was the day that we took the kids to a small water park. The kids were overjoyed to get to play and cool off on this hot
June day. Jillian was just as excited as the other kids, but it was obvious to everyone that she was different from the others. Jillian has Down syndrome. You could tell by looking at her that she had physical features that set her apart from the rest like how her eyes were slightly farther apart than most kids and each eye was slanted upwards and a little squinted. Even though she had these differences, she had the biggest, happiest smile that reached from ear to ear. In my mind, she wasn’t at all different from any other kid.
Jillian and I reached the big, red slide and climbed up the stairs to the top. She was scared so she wanted me to go down with her. She sat in front of me and I placed my legs on either side of her. “Are you ready?” With one arm wrapped around her torso, I used my free hand to push off and send us down the slide. The water shooting out of the top glided us swiftly down to the

Kuhn 2 bottom. She cheered and threw her hands in the air in excitement. When we reached the end, we splashed into a small pool of water. As we climbed out of the pool, Jillian went on and on and how much fun she had.
"Can we go again?" She pleaded, pulling on my hand. I laughed and assured her that we would go again after we have lunch. We were walking away when I noticed that the back of her bathing suit had ridden up and her backside was exposed. I stopped her to help adjust her bathing suit. As I was helping her, I realized I wasn't the only one who noticed her bathing suit malfunction. Some kids, standing about 15 feet away, were pointing at her, laughing, and making fun of the way she walked. I overheard them mutter the word ‘retard’. I hated that word. I tightened my hands into fists to keep them from shaking and clenched my mouth shut to keep from screaming. I couldn’t believe these kids could do or say such a thing. I glared at the kids, but they were too busy laughing to notice. Right then I wanted to give them a piece of my mind.
I realized though that Jillian hadn’t noticed them mocking her. If I were to scold them in front of her, she would be made aware of the bullying and I didn’t want her to experience that. They needed to know that what they were doing was wrong. I knew I needed to say something, but what? How? What do I say to these kids? I couldn’t leave Jillian standing by herself to go scold these kids, but I couldn’t let them get away with this. I’ve stood by and let people use the ‘R’ word without standing up to them too many times in the past.
About 3 years before this, when I was a freshman in high school, I was hanging out with my main group of friends which included Matt, Riley, Brigid, Kip, Sam, and Liam. We had all attended the same grade school and had remained friends through our first year of high school.
At the time, none of us were old enough to drive so we were forced to walk around the small community where we lived. After an afternoon of hanging out and doing dumb things at my

Kuhn 3 friend Matt's house, we decided to walk to the Domino’s down the street to get some pizza and bread sticks. We made it to the restaurant and found seats in the back. We began joking around with each other, exchanging funny stories when Matt stood in front of us giving his best impression of someone with a mental disability. He had his arm bent and held in front of his chest and his hand lay limp as he knocked his wrist against his chest, acting like he couldn’t control his arm’s movements. He also made noises making it seem like he was unable to form words to indicate that he couldn’t speak properly.
Matt had always been the class clown type of person. He would say or do the most idiotic things just to make someone laugh. People loved his sense of humor even though it was usually crude and even hurtful towards others. He continued to joke around and my friends laughed along with him, but I didn't. He was completely ignoring the fact that I had an aunt with Down syndrome. Even my best friend Riley was laughing. She even knew my aunt and had been around her on many different occasions. I couldn't believe that Matt could deliberately make fun of someone who had a disability. I didn't care about whether he was joking or not. It's not like these people can help the fact that they're different from others. My friends didn’t seem to notice that I was hurt. They just continued to laugh and joke around. I wanted so badly to stand up and tell him what he was doing is wrong and to remind him that I have an aunt with Down syndrome and how I don't appreciate him mocking people like her. But, I didn't. My mind was telling me to scream at him, but my body was holding me back. I was afraid that my friends would gang up on me and tell me to "relax" and that "it's just a joke". It wasn't like me to stand up to people, especially those as outgoing and well-liked as Matt. So, I did nothing. I just sat there.
Here I was, standing there, not standing up to these kids just like how I didn’t stand up to
Matt on that day three years ago. My co-worker, Kaitlin, came to tell Jillian and I that it was time

Kuhn 4 for lunch. This was my chance. I told her and Jillian to go ahead and that I had to take care of something. She gave me a puzzled look but then shrugged and walked away, holding Jillian’s hand. As they were leaving, I stormed over to those boys. I wouldn’t just stand back and let these kids use the ‘R’ word.
I caught their attention as I approached the spot where those three boys were standing.
They looked confused, probably wondering why I was walking towards them and why I looked so angry. Two of the boys took a step back to put some distance between themselves and the angry girl coming towards them. I stood in front of them, glaring down at them. "Do you think that it's okay to make fun of someone because they have a disability?" I was standing so close that I had to look down to meet their frightened gazes. They stood there speechless, mouth agape, glancing back and forth at each other sheepishly. "That so-called ‘retard’ you were making fun of is my friend and I will not put up with a bunch of bratty kids degrading her in such a way. It’s not right to make fun of and laugh at someone who has a disability. How would you feel if someone was making fun of you like that? She’s a human being just like you and me and she deserves respect.” The kids were in shock. They definitely weren't expecting to be scolded by a random stranger today. One of the boys apologized, his voice shaking out of fear, while the other boys looked away, embarrassed. I thanked him for apologizing and walked away, satisfied. Out of the corner of my eye I could see them running towards some adults sitting in beach chairs. I assumed they were going to tell their moms that some ‘mean lady’ yelled at them.
I saw Jillian sitting next to the other kids laughing and talking about how much fun they were having. As I got closer, I overheard Jillian telling her friends how I took her down the big slide and how much of a blast she had. “She promised me she would take me again!” She

Kuhn 5 exclaimed, and the kids around her all smiled and talked about how they wanted to go down the slide again too. She’ll never know what I did for her that day, but I’ll always remember.