Spread the Word Day focuses on removing R-word from vocabulary

DELAWARE – Hundreds of students across the Delaware joined forces on Wednesday to get one derogatory term out of everybody’s vocabulary.

“It’s a super outdated term, and it’s really about not using that word, but replacing it with words like inclusion, and unity and things like that,” Lindsey Underwood, a Physical Education teacher at Milton Elementary School, said of the word “retarded.”

So on Wednesday, Spread the Word Day, students and teachers across the First State celebrated by replacing the r-word with words like inclusion, unity, and respect.

“The word retarded was used to describe people with developmental delays, and that over time has become a very hurtful word and really used as a derogatory sense,” Keri Justice, the Special Olympics Coordinator at The Howard T. Ennis School in Georgetown, said.

It’s a word that can make you feel isolated, hurt, and even unwelcome.

“Kids understand what they are being called, even if people don’t realize that they do, they understand what you’re saying,” Underwood said.

One group took a stand at Milton Elementary school by collecting signatures on a banner, a sign to their peers that they’ll stand up for them.

“It makes me feel like a leader, like I’m leading something that’s important,” Aaden Johnson, a fifth grader at the school, said.

“It’s good to make others feel happy, and not sad about what other people say,” Andrew Connors, another fifth grader, added.

While the r-word can make students with developmental delays feel all alone, Spread the Word Day is all about making everyone feel included.

“This message includes our kids, of all disabilities, it doesn’t matter if you’re autistic, or if you have down syndrome, or any need disability that you may have, this encompasses everyone,” Justice said.

And while students were the focus on Wednesday, Justice says adults can also learn how important one word can be.

“It’s just teaching not only students, but adults and people in the workplace and out in the community to watch what you’re saying and how you’re talking to other people,” she said.

In total, over 170 schools throughout the state of Delaware participated in Spread the Word day, all spreading the same message of unity and inclusion.