FORT COLLINS — Connor Kelly is usually too busy with Boy Scouts or Special Olympics or hanging out with his friends to pay much attention when the “R” word is used around him.
But his mom bristles when she hears it, and she makes it known that the word “retard” is not to be used around her son or anyone else.
“I guess I become a little bit of a mama bear about it,” Jennifer Kelly said last week.
Connor Kelly, 15, was born with Sotos syndrome, a rare genetic disorder that usually is accompanied by delayed motor, cognitive and social development as well as speech impairments. There is also excessive physical growth during a child’s first two or three years.
Connor, who has had as many as 10 surgeries to deal with complications of the disorder, refuses to let it get in his way.
“I am not defined by Sotos syndrome,” the Fossil Ridge High School freshman said. “If someone tells me I can’t do anything, I work extra hard to prove them wrong.”
Still, he knows how using the term “retard” — even in jest — can be damaging. So he became the local point man in a nationwide campaign to persuade students in middle school and high school to stop using the word.
“It’s hurtful for people with disabilities, and it’s almost as bad for family members and that person’s friends,” Connor said.
Connor went to nearly every middle school in the Poudre School District this month to ask students to pledge not to use the word. Sophomore Kennan O’Reilly, Connor’s friend, did the same at Fossil Ridge. In fact, a solid majority of the 2,000 students at Fossil Ridge signed off on a banner that asked participants to “spread the word to end the word.”
Connor said he has seen a difference among students in the two weeks since the campaign was launched.
“I think a lot of attitudes have completely changed,” he said. “I haven’t heard that word used since the campaign.”
But some didn’t agree with his efforts, including a few bloggers and Internet trolls who ridiculed the effort, said Fossil Ridge principal Dierdre Cook.
There also were students who refused to sign the pledge, O’Reilly said.
“A lot said it violated their First Amendment rights. I think a lot thought it was a way to rebel against something they thought they had to do,” she said.
Cook said she understands free-speech concerns.
“But still, no one has the right to degrade people with your language,” she said.
In fact, President Barack Obama in October 2010 signed a bill called Rosa’s Law, which removes the terms “mental retardation” and “mentally retarded” from federal health, education and labor policy and replaces them with such terms as “individual with an intellectual disability” and “intellectual disability.”
Most students use the R-word without thinking of its implications, O’Reilly said. They’ll complain that something is “so retarded” or if someone makes a mistake they should stop being a “retard.”
“But it’s still derogatory, and I try to stand up and tell them to stop saying that,” O’Reilly said. “But I’m not going to lie — I know I’ve said it before.”
Connor, meanwhile, is continuing his campaign, even promoting a flag-football game between the juniors and seniors at Fossil Ridge in early May to raise awareness about the R-word.
“It’s something I set about doing, and I am going to keep going,” he said.
Monte Whaley: 720-929-0907 or mwhaley@denverpost.com
