Syracuse University hosted a vigil on Thursday afternoon to commemorate the Disability Day of Mourning, an internationally-recognized event to honor people with disabilities who have been slain by a family member or caretaker.

The event was organized by Priya Penner, a sophomore political science and citizenship and civic engagement double major, and Elly Wong, a junior policy studies and citizenship and civic engagement double major. Multiple on- and off-campus organizations also sponsored the event.

Penner began the vigil with an introductory address that highlighted the afternoon’s themes – such as the high rate of violence against people with disabilities and poor media coverage of those acts.

“This message to the public is that our lives — not our deaths — are the tragedy,” Penner said. “We hold this vigil to draw attention to these injustices, commemorate the lives of these victims and demand justice and equal protection under the law for all disabled people.”

Guest speaker Ptahra Jeppe, a second-year student in the College of Law, gave a brief speech about the importance of the Disability Day of Mourning, after Penner’s introduction.

“Our goal is to bring awareness, and to bring about change,” Jeppe said. “We say together today, no more, and I stand with all of us in the community here in SU as we pay homage to those who have passed.”

Penner and Wong read the names and ages of hundreds of slain people with disabilities who were killed by a family member. Both speakers were visibly emotional as they read through the list of victims, many of whom were children.

After a moment of silence, the organizers invited members of the audience to come to the podium and share their thoughts.

Kate Corbett Pollack, coordinator of the university’s Disability Cultural Center, brought a photograph to the vigil of Erica Parsons, a 13-year-old girl with partial deafness who disappeared in 2011 and was found dead in 2016. Throughout her life, Parsons suffered abuses at the hands of her family members. She was not allowed to socialize with other children her age or attend school.

In her dialogue, Pollack highlighted how homeschooling children with disabilities can leave them vulnerable to abuse.

“Many disabled children who are murdered or put through abuse are homeschooled, because if they went to a public school, people would know what was happening in the home,” Pollack said. “So, it’s a way for people to victimize disabled children.”

The Autistic Self Advocacy Network, an organization seeking to advance the principles of the disability rights movement, originally organized the Disability Day of Mourning after the murder of George Hodgins, a Northern California man with autism who was shot by his mother. Media coverage of the crime tended to focus on the murderer rather than the victim, and chronicled how difficult her life became when Hodgins aged out of the educational system for autistic children.

“Often times the media portrays the parents – the murderers – as individuals who deserve sympathy because they were taking care of and supposed to be loving this disabled child, who needed care and love,” Wong said.

Penner said events such as the vigil allow communities to recognize victims as people, though she conceded that gauging the true extent of these crimes is sometimes unfeasible.

“We also have to acknowledge the folks who weren’t acknowledged, because we don’t know who they are,” Penner said. “Because their body hasn’t been discovered.”

Published on March 1, 2018 at 10:53 pm

Contact Ryan: rarozenb@syr.edu