Kuala Lampur, Oct. 16 -- We speak out as a community of persons with disabilities, family members, and allies of persons with disabilities, because harmful narratives about disability, autism, and mental illness are increasingly shaping the public response to a devastating tragedy: the fatal stabbing of a student by a younger schoolmate at a school.

Of the many incidents involving children in recent months, this tragedy has cut deeply because of how the public discourse has unfolded before the facts were even known.

It is not only the impact of violence itself but also how quickly public discourse has conflated disability with danger, violence, and threats.

Comments such as "an OKU card will now appear as his biggest defence" or "this ...