The Conflict Between Plantation Bay Resort & Children With Special Needs

The recent social media storm that rallied behind Mai Pages against an insensitive post by a resident shareholder of Plantation Bay has brought a spotlight to the community of parents of children with autism.  The uproar forced Plantation Bay’s Manny Gonzalez to retract his initial insensitive post on Tripadvisor and apologise to the special needs community as well as all parents and parties offended by his words.

The incident

Best understood through the screenshots below, the incident occurred on travel website Tripadvisor, when Mai left a review on Plantation Bay’s page about her and her son’s experience at the resort and spa.  The response by management or, as signed in the apology statement, a “resident shareholder” left many both appalled and insulted.

The below screenshots of the exchange were taken from Twitter.

The reaction

Mothers, parents, and many yet-to-be parents rallied behind Mai, calling both Gonzalez and Plantation Bay hurtful and insensitive, with many more vowing not to support the resort. 

Best Buddies PH, a nonprofit organization headed by Michelle Aventejado that is dedicated to establishing a global volunteer movement that creates opportunities for one-to-one friendships, integrated employment, leadership development, and inclusive living for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD), issued a statement on Instagram.

On Wednesday, December 9, 2020, MedMom, an interdisciplinary center that is the home for collaboration and services from the different professionals of medicine, psychology, special education, early childhood education, speech and language pathology, physical therapy, and occupational therapy, held a Heart to Heart Talk About Autism via Zoom.  Hosted and facilitated by MedMom’s Dr. Tippy Tanchanco, attendees shared that the talk was invigorating and educational.  The talk can still be found on MedMom’s Facebook Page.

The biggest takeaway from the incident and the reaction is that many still have a long way to go when it comes to understanding children with special needs, and it is only with that understanding that children with special needs and their families can be treated with the right consideration.  Every case is different; each with varying symptoms.  As said during the MedMom webinar, “If you’ve seen one child with autism, you’ve only seen one child with autism.”

As of the second week of December 2020, Manny Gonzalez has stepped down as resident shareholder of Plantation Bay.