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aspiepaula
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09 Dec 2007, 1:53 pm

I'm posting ASAN's letter asking for help to stop the "Ransom Notes" campaign. To see the site at NYC Child Study Center and the press release, use the following links. Any action that is to be taken need to be done soon as the huge ad campaign is scheduled to start in December and move into other areas of the US by March.
- Aspie Paula (I guess this is my intro.)

The Autistic Self Advocacy Network is at www.autisticadvocacy.org

Offensive ad campaign sites here:

http://www.aboutourkids.org/about_us/public_awareness
http://www.aboutourkids.org/files/news/ ... elease.pdf


ASAN's letter:


Hello all:

As many of you may already be aware, the NYU Child Study Center has recently launched a new advertising campaign entitled, "Ransom Notes", depicting the diagnoses of Asperger's Syndrome, Autism, ADHD and several other conditions as kidnappers, holding children for ransom. This highly offensive ad campaign, which is set to launch on billboards, kiosks, print magazine and newspaper advertisements and online relies on some of the oldest and most offensive disability stereotypes to frighten parents into making use of the NYU Child Study Center's services. Below are several excerpts of the language used in NYU Child Study Center's "Ransom Notes" campaign. We've also attached pictures of the ads themselves.

"* We are in possession of your son. We are making him squirm and fidget until he is a detriment to himself and those around him. Ignore this and your kid will pay…ADHD."
"* We have your son. We will make sure he will no longer be able to care for himself or interact socially as long as he lives. This is only the beginning…Autism."
"* We have your son. We are destroying his ability for social interaction and driving him into a life of complete isolation. It's up to you now…Asperger's Syndrome."

This campaign, which is expecting over 700 million impressions over the next four months, is highly inaccurate and spreads classic stereotypes against individuals with disabilities. There are a number of problems with the advertising campaign:

* The ads stigmatize people with disabilities by suggesting that we are a 'detriment to ourselves and those around us.'

* The ads make people with disabilities feel shame and embarrassment.

* The ads contain inaccurate information: For example, while people with diagnoses of autism and Asperger's often have difficulty with some forms of social interaction, we are not incapable of it and can succeed and thrive on our own terms when supported, accepted and included for who we are.

* The ads suggest that our true selves have been "kidnapped" by terrible "diseases" and that we need urgent treatment to become normal again. This "stolen child" stereotype has been associated with horrible abuses against individuals with disabilities, ranging from social cruelty to beating, electric shock and even murder.

* The ads do not inspire parents to bring struggling children to professionals for diagnosis and appropriate treatment but instead just make parents terrified that their children are doomed and destined to have horrible, sad lives.

* The ads convey an incomplete and inaccurate picture of the diagnoses they purport to represent; they fail to show the many strengths and abilities of the individuals with those diagnoses. They fail to show the opportunities for support, education and resources that the NYU Child Study Center should be offering to parents and individuals with disabilities.

It is extremely important that we let the NYU Child Study Center know that its language is unacceptable and encourage them to pull the campaign before it does irreparable damage to people with disabilities everywhere. As an organization of adults and youth on the autism spectrum, the Autistic Self Advocacy Network is working closely with self-advocates, parents, professionals and other concerned citizens from throughout the disability community to implement an organized response. However, our time is short and we need you to make your voice heard immediately. Below you will find contact information for the NYU Child Study Center, the director of the NYU Med Center and a number of businesses who have donated time, ad space or other resources to the campaign. We've provided a sample template for your letters but please feel free to substitute your own words and to call the Center and their supporters over the phone. If you use our template, please make sure to delete the sections you will not be using within the bold-bracketed components. Once again, the need for action on this is immediate, so please write and/or call now.

Thank you all for your efforts and please feel free to pass along this message to other individuals and groups. We will keep you informed and we ask that you please e-mail any responses you receive to [email protected] so we can coordinate our response to this offensive advertising campaign.

Best,
Ari Ne'eman
The Autistic Self Advocacy Network, President
http://www.autisticadvocacy.org
[email protected]
732.763.5530

Sample Letter Template:

Dear [Dr. Koplewicz/Van Wagner Communications/BBDO]:

I am writing to express concern about the NYU Child Study Center's recent "Ransom Notes" campaign. Your statements about people on the autism spectrum and with other disabilities are inaccurate and offensive to me as [an individual with a disability/as a family member of an individual with a disability/as someone interested in seeing respect for individuals with disabilities] and as a concerned citizen. I urge you to pull the advertising campaign immediately from all venues, ranging from billboards and kiosks to print and online advertisements, and to take steps to ensure that the self-advocate community of adults with disabilities is consulted prior to future public relations efforts.

The NYU Child Study Center's reputation with parents, professionals and individuals with disabilities suffers as a result of the inaccuracies and negative stereotypes promoted in the "Ransom Notes" campaign. These ads will not encourage parents to bring their children to your center, or any center. Rather, these ads will make parents afraid and ashamed of their children, resulting in more children going without helpful services and interventions. These ads are also a slap in the face to both the many youth and adults who survive and thrive with the diagnoses being so inaccurately described and to the many self-advocates, parents and professionals who have worked hard to change the public image of these disabilities so that youth and adults with disabilities can be fully included and accepted in school, at home, at work and in the community at large. I urge you to apologize to the disability community and to take immediate action to remove the offensive material from the public eye.

Thank you for your time and I hope to hear from you soon.

Best,
[Fill in Name Here]

Contact Information:

NYU Child Study Center:
Dr. Harold S. Koplewicz
Phone: 212-263-6205
Fax: 212.263.0990
Dr. Koplewicz's E-mail: [email protected]
Communications Department:
Beth Rowan, Director of Communications
212.404.3757
[email protected]
NYU Child Study Center
577 First Avenue
New York, NY 10016

This is the NYU Child Study Center website: http://www.aboutourkids.org/

In addition, please take the time to copy Michael Statfeld Recanati at [email protected] and Ira Statfeld Recanati at [email protected] on your e-mails to the NYU Child Study Center. Mr. and Mrs. Recanati are the donors responsible for the creation of the NYU Asperger Institute. You may also want to contact Dr. Robert Grossman, Director of the NYU Medical Center, which has control over the NYU Child Study Center. He can be reached at 212.263.3269 and by e-mail at [email protected]

Mr. and Mrs. Recanati and Dr. Grossman are NOT responsible for the offensive advertising in the "Ransom Notes" campaign but they are in a position to stop it. As such, if you choose to write to them directly, we encourage you to be cordial and polite in explaining our concerns and encourage them to place pressure on the NYU Child Study Center to pull the "Ransom Notes" campaign.

BBDO New York:
BBDO New York designed and contributed the advertising for the NYU Child Study Center's "Ransom Notes" campaign. Please contact them to express your displeasure and explain why these advertisements are so offensive to individuals with disabilities.

John Osborn
President and CEO of BBDO New York
BBDO New York
1285 Avenue of the Americas
New York, NY 10019
(212) 459-5000
John Osborn's e-mail: [email protected]
Press Relations at BBDO: [email protected]

Van Wagner Communications, LLC:
Van Wagner Communications, LLC has donated significant billboard and kiosk space to the NYU "Ransom Notes" campaign. Please write and call to their New York office to explain to them why these advertisements are so offensive to individuals with disabilities and to urge them to withdraw their support.

Tel: 212.699.8500
Fax: 212.699.8521
[email protected]
47-50 Van Dam Street
Long Island City, NY 11101

Van Wagner has another address and phone number here:
(212) 699-8400 phone
(212) 986-0927 fax
Richard Schaps, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
Van Wagner Communications, LLC.
800 Third Ave 28th Floor
New York, NY 10022
This is the Van Wagner website: http://www.vanwagner.com/



Tim_Tex
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09 Dec 2007, 1:54 pm

Welcome to WP, aspiepaula!

Tim


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aspiepaula
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09 Dec 2007, 2:10 pm

I never like to let a thing go without doing it down to the smallest detail, so here are several other places to voice opposition to the "Ransom Notes" campaign.
I include the American Psychiatric Association because I read a book written by a former head of the APA which suggests they are all fighting with each other anyway. Maybe some of them won't like this campaign.

-AspiePaula

----
American Psychiatric Association
1000 Wilson Boulevard, Suite 1825, Arlington, Va. 22209-3901
phone: 703-907-7300 email: [email protected]

Media organizations also sponsoring: Parents magazine, New York Magazine, Newsweek, Education Update, Mental Health News (you can google to find appropriate departments)

Contacts that are clinics within the NYC Child Study Center:
[email protected].
[email protected]

links below so you can see who you are getting (there are more clinics, too, like an eating disorders one)

http://www.aboutourkids.org/families/cl ... me_service
http://www.aboutourkids.org/content/adv ... arning_lab
http://www.aboutourkids.org/families/cl ... rs_service



Paula
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09 Dec 2007, 4:58 pm

I was really suprised to read these ransom notes...and from experts?



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11 Dec 2007, 9:06 am

Yeah it's just grade A scare-mongering. I did write them, saying how sick do you have to be to prey on the fears of a parent like that?

I read the letters now, wow. I mean unbelivable, it's trumatizing. Just, man...unbelivable. This is like sick stuff I'd expect from a horror film, really, that bad. :evil:


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11 Dec 2007, 9:34 am

i think this is just sickening. People are going to start freaking out when they read these, especially since they are put in such a cruel fashion, so realisticly drawn.

this is almost depressing.



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11 Dec 2007, 9:49 am

How about writing them saying, child abuse imagery is not ok to use, to promote your own efforts.


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12 Dec 2007, 11:07 am

Here is the text of a joint statement and press release from the Autistic Self-Advocacy Network and other disability rights groups regarding the offensive "Ransom Notes" advertisements. Please show your solidarity by writing to all the people mentioned on ASAN's contact information page and protesting the ads!

___________________________________________________________


The following letter was mailed and hand-delivered to the NYU Child Study Center on December 11th, 2007. It is co-signed by fourteen premier disability rights organizations, including ASAN, ADAPT, TASH, ADA Watch and the National Coalition for Disability Rights, the Autism National Committee and many more. In it, we urge the Center to withdraw its offensive "Ransom Notes" advertising campaign, which stigmatizes people with disabilities and misinforms the public. As some of you have already heard from our previous communications on this topic, the advertising campaign is expected to garner 700 million impressions over the next four months, requiring us to act quickly to stop grave damage to the public perception of people with disabilities.

As several others have indicated an interest in joining our statement in response to the "Ransom Notes" advertising campaign, we are encouraging organizations to issue letters endorsing the joint statement and send them to the supporters of the "Ransom Notes" campaign, urging them to withdraw the offensive advertising. Contact information for all of the supporters of the "Ransom Notes" campaign is available here on ASAN's website. We will also be making available in the next day or so a petition for individuals to sign to express their support for the disability community's efforts. We urge individuals and groups to indicate their support now for the joint statement of fourteen disability rights organizations on this topic directly by contacting the NYU Child Study Center by e-mail at Harold.Koplewicz @ nyumc.org or by phone at 212-263-6205.

Thank you so much to everyone who has already written and called to protest the "Ransom Notes" campaign over the course of the past few days and for those who will do so for as long as it takes to show that the disability community will not stand for advertising that questions the humanity of people with disabilities. We will be keeping you informed as we continue to mobilize the disability community against these hurtful and unfortunate statements. Your support is what keeps the disability community strong.

Regards,
Ari Ne'eman
The Autistic Self Advocacy Network, President
http://www.autisticadvocacy.org
info @ autisticadvocacy.org
732.763.5530

___________________________________________________________

Dr. Harold S. Koplewicz, M.D.
The NYU Child Study Center
577 First Avenue
New York, NY 10016

Dr. Robert Grossman, M.D.
NYU School of Medicine
IRM 229
560 First Avenue
New York NY 10016

John Osborn
President and CEO of BBDO New York
BBDO New York
1285 Avenue of the Americas
New York, NY 10019

Richard Schaps, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
Van Wagner Communications, LLC.
800 Third Ave 28th Floor
New York, NY 10022

To the NYU Child Study Center and the supporters of the "Ransom Notes" advertising
campaign:

We, the undersigned organizations, are writing to you regarding your new ad campaign for the NYU Child Study Center: "Ransom Notes". Our organizations represent people with a wide range of disabilities, including those portrayed in your campaign, as well as family members, professionals and others whose lives are affected by disabilities. As people who live and work with disability, we cannot help but be oncerned by the way your campaign depicts individuals with disabilities. By choosing to portray people on the autism spectrum as well as those living with OCD, ADHD and other disabilities as kidnapped or possessed children, you have inadvertently reinforced many of the worst stereotypes that have prevented children and adults with disabilities from gaining inclusion, equality and full access to the services and supports they require.

While the "Ransom Notes" campaign was no doubt a well-intentioned effort to increase awareness and thus support for the disabilities it describes, the means through which it attempts this have the opposite effect. When a child with ADHD is described as "a detriment to himself and those around him," it hurts the efforts of individuals, parents and families to ensure inclusion and equal access throughout society for people with disabilities. When individuals with diagnoses of autism and Asperger's Syndrome are told that their capacities for social interaction and independent living are completely destroyed, it hurts their efforts for respect, inclusion, and necessary supports by spreading misleading and inaccurate information about these neurologies. While it is true that there are many difficulties associated with the disabilities you describe, individuals with those diagnostic categories do succeed – not necessarily by becoming indistinguishable from their non-disabled peers – but by finding ways to maximize their unique abilities and potential on their own terms.

The "Ransom Notes" campaign places a stigma on both parents and children, thus discouraging them from pursuing a diagnosis that might be helpful in gaining access to the appropriate services, supports, and educational tools. The autism spectrum should be recognized for what it is: a lifelong neurological condition – not a kidnapper that steals children in the dead of the night. The devaluation of the lives of people with disabilities has led to public policies and funding decisions that have forced thousands of people with disabilities into nursing homes and other institutions. The unintended consequences of ad campaigns like yours give legitimacy to the taking away of the civil and human rights of people with disabilities.

It is true that diagnoses of ADHD, autism, Asperger's Syndrome, and OCD often accompany great hardships for families. It is true that depression and bulimia are terrible disorders that require treatment. Yet, the way you choose to convey those messages is inappropriate and counterproductive. Individuals with disabilities are not replacements for normal children that are stolen away by the disability in question. They are whole people, deserving of the same rights, respect, and dignity afforded their peers. Too often, the idea that children with disabilities are less than human lies at the heart of horrific crimes committed against them. The recent tragic instances of violence against children and adults on the autism spectrum and with other developmental disabilities are linked to the perception that these people are less than human. We – the adults, families, professionals and others affected by these conditions - assert that nothing could be further from the truth.

We are also concerned that the negative stereotypes the "Ransom Notes" campaign depicts could make it harder for the many people with disabilities and their family members who are working to ensure that students with disabilities have the right to be included in their home schools while still receiving all necessary services. Federal law mandates that students with disabilities have the right to a "free and appropriate public education" in the "least restrictive environment". Your advertising campaign claims that children with disabilities could be a detriment to those around them and as a result hurts the efforts of parents working to secure the opportunity for their children to be included with their peers.

While we recognize and applaud the good intentions intended by this effort, we must urge you to withdraw this campaign immediately, as it threatens to harm the very people whom it seeks to benefit: people with disabilities, their families, and their supporters. In the press release announcing this campaign, the Center gave as one of its goals "eliminating the stigma of being or having a child with a psychiatric disorder". We are in full agreement with the goal of eliminating stigma against people with disabilities and their families. Yet, this campaign serves to increase that stigma rather than lessen it. We hope that you will heed our concerns and those of many other people with disabilities, family members, professionals, and countless others and end the "Ransom Notes" advertising campaign.

Please do not hesitate to contact any of the organizations listed as signatories to this letter in order to better solicit the opinions of the disability community prior to your next advertising campaign. We would be more than glad to help the Center to develop better strategies to achieve its excellent goals. The NYU Child Study Center has the potential to do enormous good for children and families affected by disability. By showing that the Center respects the views of people with disabilities, families, and professionals, you can make that aspiration a reality.

Sincerely,

Ari Ne'eman
President
The Autistic Self Advocacy Network
http://www.autisticadvocacy.org
info @ autisticadvocacy.org

Bob Kafka
National Organizer
ADAPT
http://www.adapt.org/

Diane Autin
Executive Co-Director
Statewide Parent Advocacy Network of New Jersey
http://www.spannj.org/

Jim Ward
ADA and the National Coalition for Disability Rights
http://www.adawatch.org/

Janette R. Vance
The Family Alliance to Stop Abuse and Neglect
http://www.thefamilyalliance.net/

Estee Klar-Wolfond
The Autism Acceptance Project
http://www.taaproject.com/

Barbara Trader, MS
Executive Director
TASH
http://www.tash.org

Jim Sinclair
Autism Network International
http://ani.autistics.org/

Stephen Drake
Not Dead Yet
http://www.notdeadyet.org/

Stanley Soden
Director of Independent Living Services.
MOCEANS Center for Independent Living
http://www.moceanscil.org/

Ethan B. Ellis, Executive Director
Executive Director
Alliance for Disabled in Action, Inc.
http://www.adacil.org/
President
Next Step, Inc.

Phil Schwarz
Vice President
Asperger Association of New England
http://www.aane.org/

Sharisa Kochmeister
President
Autism National Committee
http://www.autcom.org


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Didymus
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13 Dec 2007, 1:50 pm

I wrote, and I do wish that everyone here at WP would write as well.

There are loads of posts in these forums about how we Aspies and HFAs and autistics are the targets of discrimination, and the "Ransom Notes" will only cause this discrimination to worsen.

By way of demonstrating how determined these people are to continue the "Ransom Notes" campaign...I have gotten many, many people to write in to them urging them to stop it, yet the campaign continues regardless.

These people are really firmly entrenched in making all of you look bad, and by not sticking up for yourselves, you simply add to their cause:

[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]

Write them now please, and tell them how you feel.


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14 Dec 2007, 8:28 pm

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/14/busin ... ?ref=media

Now I'm really pissed off. They're aware of the negative reaction, but they're not doing anything about it. In this article, Dr. Koplewicz pretty much states that they feel any publicity is good publicity, and continue to insist that these types of fear tactics will do good. It's like they don't care about people with autism, just about their parents. The ads were bad enough, but this display of insensitivity just drives me up a wall.



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16 Dec 2007, 9:29 am

Something Ari wrote today/yesterday (depending on your timezone):

Hello all,

As some of you may already be aware, I appeared on the CW 11 Evening News last night during a segment about our response to the "Ransom Notes" campaign. While I didn't see the segment personally - I was traveling back from Manhattan at the time after filming - I am told that it gave positive coverage to our side. The Autistic Self Advocacy Network remains hard at work keeping the pressure on for a recall of these offensive and damaging ads. As you can see, our response campaign is continuing to pick up momentum, with coverage on television, in the New York Times, the New York Daily News and the Wall Street Journal Health Blog. We have heard from sources close to the NYU Child Study Center that your calls, e-mails and letters are having an impact. However, they continue to believe that the furor will die down if they just "ride out the storm", as Dr. Harold Koplewicz, head of the NYU Child Study Center, stated in the New York Times. It is time that we show them that we're not going to let them get away that easily.

There are now twenty disability rights organizations involved in the joint campaign to ensure the withdrawal of these ads and more are on the way. Hundreds of signatures are being collected endorsing the disability community's joint statement - please join them by signing this petition. Yet, the most important thing you can do is to write, e-mail and call the Child Study Center and the other supporters of the "Ransom Notes" campaign. Details about how to do that are here. Please don't hesitate to pass this e-mail and the other information on how to respond to the "Ransom Notes" campaign to the listservs, blogs and other Only by contacting those responsible and calling on them to withdraw this campaign immediately can we communicate that our cause is not a passing storm, that NYU can weather and disregard, but a undeniable campaign of outrage from a united disability community. We will not go away. We will not surrender. We will not be ignored.

I'd also like to take a moment to point out to you a positive example of an awareness campaign that we hope will someday soon be emulated throughout those sections of the medical community dealing with disability. The Cure Pity Campaign, by the Gillette Children's Specialty Healthcare, shows children with disabilities as human beings, deserving of the same respect and possessing the same hopes and dreams as everyone else. At the same time, I do not think anyone can deny its effectiveness in communicating its important message. Perhaps someday we will see NYU and other research centers taking similar approaches. Until then, thank you to all of you who have written, called and e-mailed and to those of you who have yet to do so or will do so once again.

Regards,
Ari Ne'eman
The Autistic Self Advocacy Network, President
http://www.autisticadvocacy.org
info (at) autisticadvocacy.org


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16 Dec 2007, 9:35 am

This was my letter I've sent to one person so far - is it what you're after, or should it be more forceful? I'm going to email it to everyone whose address is provided later (about to head into town).

What's the link to the petition?





To whom it may concern,

As someone who 'suffers' from Asperger's Syndrome (you know, the one that's going to hold all those kids to ransom?) and has done all my life, I'd like to point out that Asperger's Syndrome - and Autism, and all other Autistic Spectrum disorders - are not mental illnesses, as your campaign would lead people to believe. They are neurological; our brains are wired differently. There is no cure, and the majority of people with AS will tell you they wouldn't want to be cured even if there was one. I certainly wouldn't.

Asperger's Syndrome is not something that needs to be fixed, nor is it always crippling, disabling, or a problem. Au contraire - Asperger's Syndrome has led to, via people throughout history who have 'suffered' from it or are thought to have, some of the greatest inventions, discoveries, and technologies (not to mention literature, art, and music) in history. Without its presence, the world would be a far less interesting, more boring place. Most people with Asperger's will naturally learn to 'blend' in with the Neuro-Typical-dominated world around them. They will make friends, they will learn social conventions, they will grow up to become healthy, happy, well-functioning members of society. Very few 'suffer' from this condition at all.

By having these billboards up promoting the idea that this is indeed a mental illness - which it categorically is NOT - and something that can hold a child to ransom is simply instilling fear and anxiety in children affected, and in the parents of those who suspect the disorder in their children, or whose children have a diagnosis. This is what leads to mental illness.

Why not encourage people affected by Asperger's Syndrome to embrace their difference; to not be afraid of who they are and of what 'problems' they may encounter, but to have the courage it takes to fit into this NT world and grow into healthy, happy adults?

I urge you to visit www.wrongplanet.net for some insight into people affected by this 'condition', and their opinions of the idea of a cure for the syndrome.


Sincerely,

XXXX XXXX


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16 Dec 2007, 9:42 am

Here is the link to the petition: http://www.petitiononline.com/ransom/petition.html
Here is the link on how to write, e-mail and call the Child Study Center and the other supporters of the "Ransom Notes" campaign: http://www.autisticadvocacy.org/modules ... ?itemid=21
Here is the link to the Cure Pity Campaign: http://www.curepity.org/


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Didymus
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16 Dec 2007, 8:18 pm

LeKiwi wrote:
This was my letter I've sent to one person so far - is it what you're after, or should it be more forceful?


I think a letter can be written any way the person writing it feels. What's imporant is honesty and participation.


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lau
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19 Dec 2007, 8:27 pm

The statement about "concluding this phase" of the campaign is available at http://www.aboutourkids.org/about_us/public_awareness.
The petition stands at 1,180 signatories at http://www.petitiononline.com/ransom/petition.html.

I thought it might be helpful to cross post this to each of the four threads on this subject:

Are you held hostage by Autism?
URGENT CALL TO ACTION from ASAN
Campaign on Childhood Mental Illness Succeeds at Being Provo
Psych groups' fury over 'ransom' ads (NYDailyNews.com)


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