1979_11 The Daily Collegian November 1979

              United Way T.V. ad
Healthy CSUF student depicted as crippled
By Malt
lAjger
StefTlt
Defy
Probably die last organization that
*ould be espected to engage in adver-
• s>ng that could be consider deceptive
it Sough not illegal, to the United Way
a non-profit organization that solicits
contributions for charities and clubs
Danny Farmer, a CSUF student
recently sppeored in an advertisement
tor the United Way in which he was
tdmed »n a wheel chair After saying
that he used to enfoy sports, he Added
athletics aren't so big a part of my life
anymore '
Wednesday
However,  Farmer  is  eat  physically
'The purpose of the actvertising campaign is as a synsbot of the services we
provide.* sasd Tony Foicarefh executive
director of United Way
roacarelti said many organizations
'exploit' disabled people by putting
dsem before the public on television
we're not here to diminish the reci
plants that re>cetve morary from us/ he
said
'The American public to so gearsd to
that ft is not the right way to do things '
he saad
However, Wetdon Pursey, coordsppfpr
of servaoas for dtoeased sttjdents saad,
"I m somewhat disappointed that the
United Way would countorfeit like that '
Pursey said that such organizations as
the. March of Dimes have produced
'freak shows* with thesr telethons h-,t
that the use of an actually handicapped
person in dse commercial would not be
demeaning
He also said that he has been a
Opedaopaegic for several veers and would
have been wilting to appear in such a
commercial for dse United Way In
fact, he said that the United Way could
have called on anyone at the California
Association of Physically Handicapped
November 14, 1979
fettb
^v
OAN
CAUIOINIA    STATI     UNIVIISITY,    MliNO
The ugly reality of child abuse
exposed in a day long symposium
By Katasy Dick
• Staff
[laity
A two-voorpad Cswwd toll off the roof
ot his home not just once, but a couple of
times The child lived, but suffered
emotional and physical pain The? mother
was asked why she did not sock dse window that the chaad trawled out of She
said that the baby needed to team to
obey her
People abusing children tend to have
unreal ideas of how a child Is supposed
to behave.* sasd Dr Jerome Leovett,
professor of education and authority
on problems of child abuse and noajfoct,
when he spoke at a day long symposium
on campus last Wednesday
leavrtt said a child wdl spilt his mdk
*"d get yelled at, but wfsan a friend of
the family comes over and spills has
roiid it is okay Cmtdren aren't considered human beings by some adults
Child abuse is a general term which
includes four specific areas, physical
•huse. neglect, psychalofjkpt and soaual
*buse There is a law m Caawfarata
wh><h states that all profe*s*orvals who
d>a witk ehddioii must report suspected
child abuse.
One child asps found so iissapjctod thP
•" hadn't been changed la ao
long and the pens ware rusted and the
waste was overflowing
* one-veer-old cfaaid apt into her
"«xher $ knitting rseedtos and hurt
**"*"   The nsother sasd she did not
nt to put dse nee eee i away' because
the   hild had to learn to play with her
wntoys
A <*vs to daspaiiaa neglect are:
'i there enough food in the hopps for
•*meal or for one day?
is water near the pre mi Ml?
-is a toilet facility near the premises?
-•are parenti leaving dse children
alone whan they are not old enough to
handaertr
-are parents rsome, but iust not taking
care of the children?
Laavitt said one social worker was told
about some children who came to school
with cwtforeot Outran on each day,
but they wazre always dirty clothes
The social worker went to die rsome and
asked the children how the chose their
dothes they wear The children said they
went to the pile of laundry next to die
waehang wsachlwi to find the cleans it
ctottses and wear those
The cfwldron toid her that the washing
machine wortsod Trsero was roaffy no
aacuaa for faith Ironically, there was a
boa of dffrrgenf on top of dse machine
In physacat abuse, SO percent of the
of a parent's hand Leavrtt said some
parents have come to the doctor because
they hove, broken thesr hand whale
spanking their children
There are 5,000 children under the age
of sis who are killed each year The un-
ctfficaal estimates go up to 15 000 children a year
Leevttt advises parenti not- to spank
their children bar bum people can lose
oontrot     As   rnentaoned   before,    dp
marorrty of lon'irsgs happtn whale spank
mg
'Hitting anybody young, hard, could
hurt them severely " he saad
The  buttocks   is  one of   the
pieces to ait a
could even cause brain  limega if the
heotasg is severe enough
The alternative to spanking is reasoning with tha child for bad behavior aad
praising tha child for good behavior
Loo* lit said this works much better
'You have to be cwiii stent and reasonable yet not let dsem run you You
have to set dse sfnnaords and start weth
achiMwftenhe is young,* saad leevstt
Antjther way taopal with creed abuse
is to get a parson to change his eating
rujbds, said Leavrtt When a person
improved his diet, "the problem of physical abuse OBtssuwajhes to soy dse least,
so there rs a rwaOPOnowapdaem,'lw»seid
Laavitt said sugar in the diet is the
major problem It contributes to hyper
acitivrty So, rf both a father and son who
am eating sugar, for eaaanpls, gat mad,
the results may be rnore violent because
trtey are both hyperactive
There have been studies, saad Leavrtt,
wfsare hyperactive children wi dan
rooms ware put on dtffonant diets ******
teaming want up and Cttsturbeng ectrv
•ties ward down
A lot of abusers want rsesp, but do not
know where to go to get it, saad Leavrtt
One rtsother knew she would bee con
trot so she wont to a certain agency and
they told her she was okav She left and
then seriously iniured her two children
Arsother rnother, who, along with her
husband, had trouble with control
went to some agencses and they also
said she was okay After dust the father
kitted one child and waa going to kifl the
other undt the mother gat some heap
Out at the TO imldlsn cfwfren in fist
U S . two and a fsalf miilton are abused
'We take a strong position that people
with itijabihtloi are their own best advo-
cetes 'hesaad
Pursey wes dii appointed because he
has been a long time supporter ef the
United Way
A spokesman for the Federal Trade
Commission office in San Francisco
said that such advertising is not illegal
'm tar a* we'm concerned " He saad he
believed that the people who appear in
hensoMhotd consmerctals don't actually
suffer from the ailment
'People being a little upset about it is
lustrfiable " said Farmer, who appeared
in the commercial
'It's not understood why I was used
and not someone in a wheelchair,' he
added Farmer saad that he assumed that
he was used because the United Way
wanted to reach as many people a* poss
ible And to aelav the message of dse
acrvertisernent to an audmnu a* effec
11 vety as possible
He also said that is waa probably
easier to contact him than someone dis
abled
Farmer is a fhsator arts major at
CSUF He said ha waa contacted by
KFSN Channel 30 through the Good
Conapeny Players, a local theater group
He ssoa not dw only actor among the
troupe to do commercials, but he was
the onty one to be filmed in a wtseolchair,
he saad
However, Faamej saad he never asked
why he was used for die ctaoaniicgt
instead of a handicapped person 'They
didn't need me Questioning
hoard room csecisaons ' he said
Farmer saad that he knew he
receive some unfavorable
when he dad the oonsmericiaJ But 1
didn't hear what I wanted to hoar,"
he saad because people ashed him how
much he was paid
Farmer was never paid a cant for
appearing in the comrnorcieJ In fact, he
sasd he had to take off work to do the
Farmer described an incident in which
a woman he did not even know chastised
htm for posing as a ruarsdscapped person
'To myself, it made ma foal good because I wasn't being used' Raw? five-
year-old children with lag braces who are,
lined before a tOBSilsaon camera he saad
'I rust hope thot II doesn t have any
bad effects ' said Fastaor, because
people donate a tot of eaanay and base to
the United Way
la
system or orcuiatory system by ckang so
and this could be dangerous  He saad it