Five years after 'Rosa's Law' eliminated 'R-word' from federal lexicon, movement continues to grow
At age 14, Rosa Marcellino already has an enviable track record as a lobbyist.
Five years ago, she was a central figure, along with her parents and other family members, in a national campaign to pass a law requiring federal government officials to eliminate the “R-word”—mentally retarded—from their lexicon. Although some people still need to be educated about the hurtful impact this language can have, as a recent Herald Journal article notes, Rosa’s Law, signed by President Barack Obama in October 2010, put the issue on a national platform and increased public awareness.
The family spent approximately two years on the road lobbying for legislation in their home state of Maryland and nationally, espnW.com reports, and joined in an effort to “Spread the Word to End the Word.” In addition to trying to eliminate hurtful slang use of the R-word, Rosa’s mother, special-needs education teacher Nina Marcellino, said she hoped to “make sure professionals no longer used it.”
A grassroots movement that began some 30 years earlier, the effort to replace the R-word with “intellectual disability” or similar language still reverberates. On Friday, the governor of Indiana signed a bill into law which requires the use of “intellectual disabilities” in state code, WISH reports.
“No one wants to be called retarded,” said Melody Cooper of Self Advocates of Indiana. “Nobody.”
Related coverage:
Teaching Tolerance (Southern Poverty Law Center): “A Girl and a Word”
