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As I read through the comments about Shannon's current story arc, I was rather surprised at all the negative comments geared toward it.

While I am not someone with developmental disabilities, I find Shannon's story to be one of commonality that we all, abled and disabled alike, can understand. Shannon and her friends are asking for something we all as human beings need and deserve: RESPECT!

The only difference is Shannon's specific need for respect directly correlates to her abilities and the lack of understanding from her classmates.

Her "voice" is one not just for the disabled, but for anyone who has been ostracized and demeaned and has finally reached his or her limit.

As readers our focus should not be centralized upon Shannon's "poster-child" persona as one blogger commented, but instead as a young woman navigating the treacherous halls of high school (and they are treacherous) and standing up for herself and saying "enough" and asking her peers to look beyond what she is lacking and focus on what she has mightly grasped on to and embraced in her life!

Though this strip plays off of Lynn's life experiences, there are obvious marks of fiction and this story line is one that is taking an amazing real life woman and transforming her into an amazing fictional character that knows who she is and is proud of what she can do.

I don't know what reader or person wouldn't love to have that type of positive transfer from real-life to fiction happen for them.

Tiffany F., Akron, Ohio

The character "Shannon" and the circumstances that she lives with are still a reality for many persons of challenge. This comic strip should and does give us a chance to perhaps look at our own actions and attitudes through the eyes of one like "Shannon".

Yvonne L., Oakville ON

Shannon's storyline - this is not a true representation of the experience special needs kids have in school - not these days. I find the whole storyline preachy and demeaning.

Ann, Alberta

Lynn, thank you for including a disabled person in your comics. I've not seen a disabled person in comics and frankly it's about time! I too am disabled and have faced many challenges because of the disability. one being getting the kids to stop teasing me at school. I am an adult and have come to the realization that no matter how far we disabled people have come, there will still always be someone willing to pull the rug out from underneath us, so THANK YOU for Shannon standing up for herself. it didn't come out preachy or cloying at all. it was PERFECT!

Jeremy C.

I am incredibly disappointed with the trajectory of the Shannon Lake storyline, from promising beginnings into the current tar pit of glurge. For all the fuss made on this webpage about Shannon's real-life origins, we have yet to see Shannon as anything other than a mouthpiece for bromides about the Plight of the Disabled. In real life, kids with mental and physical disabilities have real friends, real hobbies, real romantic relationships, real high-school drama, real hopes and dreams. They don't exist solely to educate their peers. A genuine friendship between April and Shannon, in which Shannon is allowed to be a teenager rather than a poster child, would have been refreshing and worthwhile. I am very sorry that we were given this offensive, reductionist claptrap instead.

Laura, Michigan

I have grown up (literally) on FBorFW and I feel like every single character is part of my family. It is, hands down, my favorite strip running today. (My uncle, Stan Drake, used to draw Blondie so as I kid I felt very special about having that connection - but FBorFW has always been my favorite.)

I absolutely LOVE Shannon's current story line. I think April's friendship with Shannon is indicative of how most teenagers would treat those with disabilities these days - however, when I was in high school our special needs kids were teased mercilessly and I KNOW it had to hurt.

Most kids these days have had instruction in, or have been directed toward, tolerance but that doesn't mean teasing and hurtful things don't still happen.

Congratulations on a fantastic strip! And thank you for being a part of my life!

Jennifer S.

Thank you thank you for your strips on special needs kids. I love todays "Maybe I was born different to make a difference." As a parent of a special needs child this is an amazing statement. Thank you for all the subjects that you cover.

Rachel L.

Thank you for the current series of strips featuring Shannon standing up for herself and her friends. My brother has developmental disabilities, and I remember all too well the kinds of snide remarks and other derogatory attitudes that were displayed by other students around us. Not all of them, of course, but enough that even I, his kid sister, noticed. I'm glad to see FBofW addressing this, and in a way that makes Shannon the star.

It's true, as one of your other commenters said, that kids today have more experience with people with special needs than their predecessors did. But teasing and exclusion still happen, and still hurt. Three cheers for Shannon -- and for FBofW.

Katherine B., Cambridge MA