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Gavin McHugh - Christopher on 9-1-1 TV show | Sandling All Day

Tuesday, October 8, 2019

Gavin McHugh - Christopher on 9-1-1 TV show

If you don't know who Christopher is I worry that the rock you've lived under thus far, needs shifting.  Because he is someone you ought to know of.

Prime time FOX drama 9-1-1 follows a cast of first responders - Firefighters, EMTs and Police, along with the 911 dispatch operators, who save lives every day.
That, in itself, not new.
But where this show deviates from the social norms, is where it becomes the absolute BEST in the world of special needs.


Gavin McHugh is an actor with Cerebral Palsy.  He is TREMENDOUS.  So is the show, for casting someone with special needs, to play a special needs character.
Plenty of shows are changing popular culture, and challenging the norms, by including plot lines, characters and the like, that involve special needs people, but unfortunately, they are usually played by an actor.  A double actor....lol
This time, they did it RIGHT.

Gavin is an extraordinary addition to the already amazingly casted 9-1-1.

But... When this season started with the tsunami... The character of Christopher became much more front an center.
Previously, Christopher was a small part... A hi and bye type. Which, for what it was, worked.
But they did something all together different... And it worked.

This last episode, where Christopher is found, after the tsunami, safe and sound, was... Heart wrenching.  Gut checking.  Until the last few minutes, we were sure it was ending horribly.
The honest tears in his father's eyes, as Buck fails to explain what happened... If you didn't cry... I'm worried about you.

Yes, this post is out of the norm for me... But, I felt so moved after this last episode, that I needed to say something.

Inclusive is not something
that is the NORM yet. This is so unfortunate... Not only for our special needs kids, but for us, too.  Kids with different abilities have SO MUCH TO Offer... Yet, the stigma and unknowing, around these needs, has been so overwhelming in stopping progress.

While I love that Hollywood is trying, the reality is, the bulk of any special needs work is down syndrome.  The problem here, is that starts labeling things.

The other day, some jerk called my son the R word.  I got UNHINGED.
He tried explaining himself, because, according to Websters dictionary, my Don "fit the definition".

What's funny, is he does not, but that another conversation.
The issue is, that "special needs" does not fit into this neat and tiny box they seem to want to use.

Special needs is not LIMITED to autism and down syndrome.  Special needs is just that.  Anyone who has needs, different from the "typical"
This is not JUST developmental delay, but physical delay/issues, mental, emotional, social... The list is endless.

We need to, as a culture, get past this labeling that we do, where special needs is just this, or that. 
"You aren't special needs because you don't fit the xyz definition."

It's ridiculous.

To Fox. I commend you.  Making shows is not just ratings.  It's people.  It's lives.  It's stretching peoples minds to show what is... Not just what WAS.

To Gavin, I thank you.  You make us all so proud.  Besides your acting skills being phenomenal, you show all SN kids that ANYTHING is possible.  And, it is.

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