October is Down Syndrome Awareness Month! The paragraph below was written by Isiaih Greenstein and the Student Union by Culture, a group at FRCS whose goal is to bring awareness to and celebrate the amazing diversity of our school community.
Did you know that the month of October holds down syndrome awareness month? All year around it's good to practice love, respect, and inclusion. However, we may not take the time to fully educate ourselves on certain topics. That's the purpose of Down Syndrome awareness month, to take a second to recognize those who have this syndrome and understand more about it. There are a lot of misconceptions about down syndrome but before we discuss those we need to understand what down syndrome is exactly. Down syndrome is also known as trisomy 21, which means that there is an extra chromosome on the 21st gene. Usually chromosomes come in pairs but in this case there is an extra chromosome. That is what down syndrome is technically, and now that this is known here are some misconceptions. First off is that all people with down syndrome are the same. Just like everything else, down syndrome falls on a spectrum, and ability levels vary. Another misconception is that people with down syndrome are physically impaired. Those with down syndrome are able to participate in sports just like the rest of us, in fact there are teams internationally that include them in the special olympics. If you are wondering how you can support those with down syndrome click here and it will take you to the national down syndrome societies (ndss) donation page.