Diagnosing students as an insult

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It is the point of the year where biology classes are discussing genetic diseases and disorders. One thing we all cover is nondisjunction and how it causes things like Down syndrome. The actual cause of Down syndrome is called trisomy 21. (3 #21 chromosomes) Back when I was in school a common derogatory adjective was to describe someone or something as “retarded”. These days students are taught not to say that. My students freaked last week when I said that one of the effects of an untreated genetic disease (PKU) is mental retardation. I had to explain to them what the word “retard” means and why I could say that. Anyway this morning another teacher taught about Down syndrome. A student left her class and started telling other students that they had trisomy 21. Basically he was trying to call them “retarded” with the expectation that other people wouldn’t know his intent was to insult them. He did it to one of my students who knew exactly what he meant. The kid (mine) got really upset. I wound up calling the other teacher to tell her what he was doing. She was furious and said she would go find him to handle it. I was happy to hear that and also that my student remember what I taught him.