8:36am June 2, 2015

Another Unfortunately True Story

In my first few months of being at JRC, I had been asking about where my glasses were. They had gotten taken from me at some point after I got there, and they said I was too “unsafe” to have them. Even though I was very nearsighted and had worn my glasses since I was 13. Not being able to see well contributed to my frustration and anxiety.
One day my case manager at the time came to my workshop with a pair of glasses and forced me with a 3 step direction (under penalty of shock) to put them on. They weren’t my glasses I had never seen them before. She pinpointed me “arguing with staff”. She said I HAD to wear them, that I was mistaken and they were mine, she found them in her desk drawer. I couldn’t see anything out of them and it made me sick to wear someone else’s prescription. Her and the workshop supervisor forced me to wear the all day, saying I just needed to get used to them again. THEY WERE NOT MY GLASSES. I think at some point they realized they were wrong, but at JRC staff can never admit to making a mistake, so they will maintain to the end that they are right, at students expense and much to our frustrations.
To save myself, I ended up “losing” the glasses so I wouldn’t have to wear them anymore. Of course that got a new behavior added to my program “hiding or losing. throw away glasses”. The truth is I would never hide or throw away my actual glasses, I really need them to see. I was forced into doing that because they were forcing me to wear someone else’s glasses! Like, who DOES that? Oh yeah, JRC…

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