How can someone harbor so much hate for someone, simply because they are different? That is the question that one mother has after her child, diagnosed with Autism, was sent a hate letter.
13-year-old, Maxwell Begley is just a normal teenage boy, except for the fact that he was diagnosed with Autism when he was 20-months-old. He enjoys things that other kids his age would enjoy, including go-karts and jumping on his trampoline. He loves going to his grandmother’s house to watch “Grease” and taking trips to the dog park.
Despite the Maxwell’s carefree nature, a hate letter was slid under his grandmother’s door, in Newscastle, Ontario, on Friday telling her to, “Do the right thing and move or euthanize him!!! Either way, we are ALL better off!!!” The letter was signed, “Sincerely, One pissed off mother!”
A close family friend has an autistic boy and this was an anonymous letter slipped under her door. This is real. pic.twitter.com/VyRb2oqPrG
— Lennon and Maisy (@lennonandmaisy) August 19, 2013
The writer claimed that Maxwell makes a “noise polluting whaling that scares the hell out of my normal children!!!!” She also said that Maxwell was a “hindrance to everyone,”and that “whatever non-retarded body parts he possesses should be donated to science”.
Maxwell’s mother was in shock after reading the letter and says that she began hyperventilating and had to be calmed by her husband.
“It made me sick to my stomach to think that somebody hated my son that much and they didn’t even know him,” Karla Begley says. “But they just hated him because he was different. That’s the only reason they had to hate him.”
Maxwell does not know that the letter was sent or what the letter contained. He is, however, enjoying all of the attention that he is getting from everyone. “He doesn’t know anything about the letter,” says his mother. “He loves the attention, he thinks he’s famous.”
Jodi MacLean, spokesperson for the Durham Regional Police, say they are “taking it very seriously” and are currently investigating whether any laws were broken.