Retarde’ stockist says `toughen up’ /by LAUREN NOVAK
19/11/2013
Published in The Adelaide Advertiser, page 15
LAUREN NOVAK POLITICAL REPORTER THE owner of a retail chain stocking a T-shirt bearing the word “retarde” says children with Down syndrome need to “toughen up”. Globalize clothing chain director Clayton Cross was speaking on Fiveaa Radio with the mother of a teenage boy with Down syndrome, provoking a storm of angry protests. The mother, Sam, and her son, Ben, were part of a protest outside the Globalize store in Rundle Mall yesterday and Sam had appeared on the Seven Network’s Sunrise show about the issue. Mr Cross questioned why Ben did not appear with her. “I don’t mind if he can’t make a cogent argument but the kids have got to toughen up,” Mr Cross told Fiveaa. “The nature of the world is that child (Ben), like everyone, is going to have a tough life and at the moment all the parents I’m seeing are just mollycoddling their children to death. I mean, I deal with hundreds of children and they’re coming through the system no-one’s ever said `no’ to them by the time they’re 16.” The Sunday Mail first revealed the shirts were being sold by the clothing chain, angering people with intellectual disabilities and their carers. Disabilities Minister Tony Piccolo weighed into the controversy saying “people living with disability deserve both dignity and respect and I cannot see how this affords people living with disability either of those rights”. Mr Cross told ABC radio yesterday morning the shirts had been selling well and it was not the role of a clothing company to censor what customers chose to wear. Following the comments, about 40 people protested with signs in front of the Rundle Mall store, chanting for Globalize to stop selling the “shirts that hurt” and apologise. In a surprising twist, Paralympic cyclist Mel Leckie appeared at the protest wearing one of the shirts and argued it was no different to wearing clothing printed with the word idiot or d***head. Her comments angered the protesters and Dignity for Disability MP Kelly Vincent. Ms Vincent said the word retard was hurtful to people with an intellectual disability and asked people not to buy clothing bearing the word. Police later asked the protesters not to obstruct the door. A Globalize staff member said the shirts had sold out at the Mall store but the company would not order any more.
