This is disturbing.
A California family says they were kicked off a cross-country American Airlines flight because their 16-year-old son has Down syndrome.
Joan and Robert Vanderhorst, of Bakersfield, Calif., said they intend to sue American over the “humiliating” incident at Newark Airport, in which they were told their special needs son posed a “flight risk.”
“It’s defamation,” Robert Vanderhorst told the Daily News. “It’s a violation of his civil rights and its defamation.”
Joan Vanderhorst pulled out her cell phone and started recording the incident on Sunday in which Bede is seen quietly playing with his hat and an American Airlines official warns that she was prohibited from filming “in a security-controlled area.”
At one point, Port Authority police were even called on the confused family.
“Nothing like this has ever happened to us before. That’s what’s so shocking. He’s usually our good luck charm. Good things usually happen when Bede is with us,” Vanderhorst said.
If the pilot kicked off a Muslim the world would be descending on him. But it wasn’t. It was just a kid with Downs Syndrome. So you can do whatever you want to them.
September 6, 2012 at 3:51 am
Shall we compare this to the imam in Pakistan who planted torn pages from the Koran and ashes in the bag carried by a Down's syndrome girl? What is wrong with people that they can't feel love for the disabled?
September 6, 2012 at 5:34 am
What's wrong with them.
Simple, really. They are complicit by silence or action in aborting them all before they are born. Subsequent births disturb them.
September 6, 2012 at 3:07 pm
"So you can do whatever you want to them." Aborting them seems to be the preferred option. The airline was simply reminding the parents what they SHOULD have done 17 years earlier.
That's okay. In Pennsylvania now we're going to balance the Medicaid budget by charging families of severely disabled kids 5% of their household incomes. Again, it's your CHOICE if you have a disabled kid, but we'll make you pay for it, BIG TIME!
(For the sake of full disclosure, I'm the father of 4, two of whom are twins with autism spectrum disorder. My children are the best thing that will ever happen to me, short of realizing the promises of Christ.)
September 6, 2012 at 4:17 pm
Virgins, innocent virgins are hated for their innocence and virginity. As God chooses innocence and virgins as His favorites so these same virgins are despised for their innocence and virginity. What suicide bomber is going to heaven for seventy innocent virgins? Thought I would ask. I want to know.
September 6, 2012 at 4:20 pm
It has occurred to me to add, that these innocent virgins, the handicapped and the "disabled from sinning" are the bulwark against the wrath of God…even in The Party.
September 7, 2012 at 2:11 am
Michael, I'd challenge in court. Maybe the ACLU would take the case.
September 7, 2012 at 2:28 am
ACLU sounds like a good start. They support the constitutional rights of all pro bono.
September 7, 2012 at 1:39 pm
Or maybe folks the pilot saw something that made him think this kid was going to be. A problem.
September 7, 2012 at 7:57 pm
Dymphna
unlikely, there is video of him sitting quietly as the passengers were boarding. Also AA said he was running. Really? It is not easy for most thin children with DS to run due to low muscle tone and balance issues. He had the additional issue of some extra weight. He was not running. AA didn't know enough to come up with a more believable lie. It wouldnt' have been so bad if AA had just said one of our employees made a mistake but they have held onto their story and even tried to say they did it for the good of the child. Sure. If they had evidence to support their case it would have come out by now–credible witnesses, video tape. The fact that they have not come forward with any evidence cements it for me. Most likely a first class customer said they didn't want him in with them probably said he would undoubted disturb the peace and the gate agent went along with it and cited the easy to enforce security risk. If he was such a security risk why was he allowed to fly on the next flight? I don't want AA to go down the tubes but come clean already.
September 10, 2012 at 6:04 am
@rover: The ACLU supports an unconstitutional agenda of secularization that impinges on the free speech rights of the religious. (Quick quiz, brainiac, does the phrase "separation of church and state" occur in the Constitution?)
But then again, you're probably just grateful they defended your comrades' right to march in Skokie.