Haven't the slightest idea what the word is.

"Retard"

Is Libtard in the dictionary?

That doesn't make it appropriate, especially in an educational setting.

insults during my entire public school years; everyone knows this -- you couldn't even get through a single day without hearing both words, many times over. Maybe that's still the case. The fact that both words are in the dictionary is an absurd defense. WTF?

Hearing those terms being bandied about was just as normal as hearing the morning announcements.

In Trump's America, she's done nothing wrong. In fact, she'll be heralded as a hero and be celebrated on every Fox show.

So she goes in front of the whole community and shows her ass. Like, honestly, do you want to have this person over to your house for a PTA planning session after this?

By the way, these are the people we're supposed to "communicate with" and "find common ground with." They think that freedom of speech means having the right to be a vicious bully without cnsequences. What are the situations in which this woman wants to call somebody a "retard?" That's really the question I'd like answered.

It's pretty clear what happened: one of her kids told her that it was wrong and mean-spitrited to use the word, and she got her back up, dug in, and doubled down. What an embarrassing person and parent.

Her first sentence is a perfect example of Republican double-speak, in the pattern of:
"I agree with being nice to people BUT..."

I am totally supportive in creating a great place for everybody, but I just think we have to be cautious that it's not going to violate religious freedoms and freedom of speech.

Why anyone would want to do this is beyond me.

The public starts to use the dx as pejorative and insult.

So then we have to change the diagnostic manuals to something neutral,
the public then uses that in a nasty way, then we have to change that too.

euphemism treadmill

(lexicography) The process by which euphemisms fall into disuse and are replaced by new ones, as the old ones become socially unacceptable over time

I worked over 40 years in the mental health field, and terms that were perfectly acceptable
when I was a young professional had to be changed.

Mental retardation was an acceptable term but then had to be changed.

My mother was in health care too, and dx like "imbecile" was acceptable but then had to be changed.

Along with ‘cretin’, which was nearly the bottom rung on their hierarchy of mental development.

Nowadays it's usually called Congenital Iodine Deficiency Syndrome.

disabilities, as both a classroom teacher and when I was younger for what was then The Department of Mental Health and Mental Retardation. Way before that (I worked there in the 80s and 90s), Idiot (IQ below 25), Imbecile (IQ 26-50) and Moron (51-70) were actual medical terms according to Chat GPT. In the 80s we referred to people roughly in those three categories as severely, moderatley and mildly retarded. I have no doubt that within my children's lifetimes they will cringe when they see old videos of me casually tossing around cruel insults like "intellectual disability" or "developmental delay."

10 inches thick, sitting on its own podium. Stumbled across the word "fuck" and it's meaning. (Interestingly, it said it's a slang acronym believed to be "for unlawful carnal knowledge." -- a synonym for another R word, "rape".)

Acronyms are mostly 20th century and that term goes back at least to the 15th, probably the 13th. Germanic in origin.
https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/what-the-fuck/

I have often said that if someone was to holler "HEY RETARD" in a stadium, I would stand up and holler "OVER HERE". As an Aspis I have been called that so many times that I just got used to it and more or less accept it and called it my own.

If it offends other people, don't use it. Especially when it is punching down.

I read down the article.

to tell her she's stupid and cruel, and that although she can constitutionally insult and degrade other people as much as she wants, she's just showing us what kind of a person she really is.

so I guess we can use it freely.

and the definition includes a picture of this woman

And I said why I ain’t gonna stop. I’m a christian and I can say anything I want. It allows me to be hateful, cruel, mean spirited, spiteful and a horrible human being. But Jesus gets us. Don’t ya know. So, I’m gonna keep using the word because god invented the word and the word is the word of god.

Obviously, this woman has no need for that.

should start calling her that word - all the time. I'm guessing she wouldn't like that much.