ETSU’s annual Disability Day of Morning vigil was held in the Brown Hall auditorium March 1.
The Disability Day of Morning began in 2012 by the Autistic Self-Advocacy Network in honor of George Hodgins, an autistic man who was murdered by his mother, who was described in media coverage as “low functioning,” “high maintenance” and a burden on his mother.
The Neurodiversity Club at ETSU was created by a group of friends who came together and wanted to help other students on campus who are autistic or have different kinds of health conditions.
This is the reason that these people have come together – to advocate for autism and disabilities, to remember these victims and to prevent these murders from happening.
“[We] gather together in order to read the names of each individual who has been murdered by their parent or caregiver for simply having a disability,” said Courtney Johnson, founder of ETSU’s Neurodiversity Club.
Throughout this event, there was a slideshow PowerPoint presentation that showed the victims and who they were, and also there was a paper chain with links of all of the victims that have been killed due to an illness or disability. This event was a great success in a way of informing people of these unnecessary and tragic murders.
