A Child With Down Syndrome Made Fun Of By Mean Trolls For Eating Birthday Cake.

Let’s look at the highlights of a distressing incident where a father, Scott Gavin, shared a picture of his daughter Megan, who has Down’s syndrome, enjoying her first birthday cake, only to face online abuse and derogatory comments. Trolls mocked Megan, using offensive language and questioning the father’s decision to celebrate her birthday. Undeterred by the negativity, Scott Gavin responded positively, vowing to combat ignorance by sharing more pictures of Megan.

Mean people made fun of a cute picture of a dad’s daughter eating her birthday cake, and the dad hit back at them. People online were mean to Megan Gavin, who has Down’s syndrome. They called her a “Downie” and a “retard.”

Last week, for her first birthday, Scott, her happy dad, shared a picture of his daughter and was “distraught” to see the mean comments. One said, “Kids in Africa are going hungry, and you’re giving cake to a kid who can’t even understand what it is.”

Scott from Kirkby, Merseyside, said reading the abuse “mortified” him, but he chose to do something good with his anger. “My shock turned right into anger,” he said. It was clear that I needed to find these people.

Alt Text: Megan Gavin gets stuck into her birthday cake | Source: Scott Gavin

But after giving it some thought for a few hours, I decided I wouldn’t let some jerk make me mad and spoil my baby’s day. “So I turned it into a good thing and decided that from now on, I’m going to teach the stupid people what they don’t know.” “I will show my love by posting Megan’s pictures.”

2017 Scott won £26,000 on the TV show Great British Benefit Handout. He turned his house into a small zoo and started his own Party Central Entertainment company with the money. The father of six said that he often shows strange animals to kids with special needs and that other parents have told him shocking stories of being abused online.

He also said, “The moms tell us this always, and it breaks our hearts.” “I don’t get why different people see them that way.” I don’t get it. It’s “worse and worse” for people with disabilities, says Scott, because fewer people are being charged with hate crimes.

Alt Text: Parents Leanne and Scott Gavin | Source: Scott Gavin

A charity for disabled people called Leonard Cheshire found earlier this year that between 2016/17 and 2017/18, hate crimes against disabled people had gone up by 33%. Even though there were more hate crimes recorded, only 6% of them were prosecuted. This is less than the 8% that was charged the previous year.

It also polled disabled people and found that 70% of those who had been victims of hate crimes online were targeted on Facebook. Two out of five victims (22%) said it did happen through email. It’s scary that 36% of victims didn’t tell anyone about what happened.

Neil Heslop, the CEO of Leonard Cheshire, said the events might only be the beginning. He said, “Police are recording more and more online crimes, but we know that it’s still not being reported enough, and disabled people may be afraid to speak out.” We think many crimes go unreported, so victims never get help, and those who did them don’t get in trouble.

Alt Text: Little Megan Gavin with the family’s massive pet dog | Source: Scott Gavin

“These crimes can have terrible effects on the lives of people who have survived them.” “Because we work with disabled people, we know that hate crimes cause long-term fear, anxiety, and sometimes being alone.”

“Advocacy services that help disability hate crime survivors, like the one our charity runs in Northern Ireland, are lifelines. They also let us work closely with the police to teach them more about this issue.” “These kinds of services should be available all over the UK.”