Spirit of Peace

One of our charges at work is mentally retarded and has some psychosies. His mom is also mentally retarded but also fervently religious. he has religious word searches and DVDs but recently Mom gave him a Bible. Since his reading is limited to words he recognizes, obviously staff must read to him the "doth"s and "cometh"s and "begat"s that populate the Book. I remember the first time I was asked to read something religious and my supervisor clarified that I could read it but I had to offer no comments on it, positive or negative. That seemed like a reasonable compromise. Constitutional rights intact but separation of church and state also intact as well.

So I have regularly read to him and paraphrased without offering a bias since the mere reading would defeat the purpose. Lately he has been losing his mind and sent a supervisor to the hospital yesterday, which was the second supervisor he sent to the hospital in the past month. Now he has been removed from the community and has staff attention 1 to 1 for the weekend. Of course on the day I picked u, I got the responsibility. I didn't mind too much. He's mostly a chilled out kid except for his lapses of control. And I did hold him today for two minutes and he was in another hold when I left to get his dessert, but otherwise he was mostly copasetic. He's parking in the solution area where we've moved his mattress and he wants me to read him his Bible. Even though we're not supposed to be talking with him, I figured the exception would be the Bible reading.

First my buddy and supervisor CR says you shouldn't do that. In my crankiness and religiosity, I somewhat snap back ansd say I will read. Program director sees me and asks me to stop. I offer my side that I thought it was okay since you know religious and all. He offers me some mess about him having a serious incident and needing to follow the plan. I gave him back the Bible and quietly seethe.

Initially, I was just going to be rebellious and read the thing when they left. Then I thought better of it. I was going to write an e-mail to the COO and the Human Rights Officer. But then I thought that wouldn't be fair to my program director. I figured I'd e-mail him with a detailed explanation and blind carbon copy the aforementioned people. Then I thought, "Maybe there is a justifiable reason." I thought I'd do research on my own time and figure out how deep it should go. Then I realized I should pray.

The prayer was a sentence. I don't even know what I said.

And I was still seething.

Within 2 minutes, the program director came back in and realized that he couldn't read and said it was okay.

Can you praise Him now people?

There is nothing else to say.