As a disabled person, I don’t want to be considered an “inspiration” just for existing and navigating a world that was not built to accommodate me. I wasn’t given a choice, and I just want to exist like every other student does. I’d prefer it if I could be stressed about having too much homework and wondering how I’m going to pull off finals, not whether my wheelchair is going to fit in the bathrooms.
The student, who’d expressed suicidal intent, had a wariness of police based on past experiences and said that they would run away if officers arrived on the scene. So Elizabeth called Penn’s psychiatric emergency center instead, walked the student over for an evaluation, and filed an incident report requesting no police follow-up… The next morning, police showed up at the student’s dorm anyway, escorting them out of the apartment and through Hill. Robert described the ordeal as a “perp walk,” adding that while the officers were in plain clothes, that did little to reduce the visibility of the encounter.
The campaign was successful in categorizing the R-word as taboo for years — until recently. According to a study conducted by Montclair State University, casual usage of the word has increased significantly on social media over the last few years. The number of posts containing the slur jumped from 2,000 per day in 2020 to 46,000 per day in 2026, a 2000% increase.
Mental health awareness within the Asian American and Pacific Islander community has long been overlooked and stigmatized, often due to things like fear of seeking help and the expectation of living up to the model minority myth. In media, these experiences are often tokenized, trivializing the stressors of achieving academic and professional success to repay the previous generations’ sacrifices, which seems to be the epitome of being in this minority group.
But Mental Health Awareness Month — observed every May, this year under NAMI’s theme “In Every Story, There’s
Strength” — exists precisely because the past tense is a lie we tell to make other people more comfortable. So this month, I am writing the sentences I did not put in my application.
Overpolicing on campus can instill fear in students due to UCPD’s long history of racialized policing. Thus, law enforcement should not have a sustained presence on college campuses. UCPD must withdraw their stationed police officers, especially considering reports of biased policing, and reduce PSA and CSO activity.
June 9, 2019. Ali Stroker wins Best Featured Actress in a Musical at the 73rd Annual Tony Awards. An actor, singer, and wheelchair user, Ali Stroker has been a trailblazer for disability representation on the stage. She was the first wheelchair user to graduate from the Tisch School of the Arts Drama Department at New York University. In 2015, she was the first wheelchair user to appear on Broadway, starring as Anna in the musical, Spring Awakening. For her performance as Ado Annie Carnes in the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical, Oklahoma!, Stroker became the first wheelchair user to win a Tony Award in 2019.
Take the quiz: Check Your Ableism!
Being Young and Disabled
By Noah Griffth, Auburn University
I Was a "Student of Concern"
By Kate Jackson, Rutgers University
In My Moment of Distress
By Anonymous, Temple University