Comments for Moms on the Move

Comment on Contact by Gwen Benty

Gwen Benty — Fri, 20 Apr 2012 23:54:20 +0000

Thanks Dawn,
I appreciate your support. I will email my letter I sent to school district #8 in Nelson BC to the telus.net email address. My mother who lives and works on Vancouver Island had a meeting with a women who works for the Austims society in Naniamo – she also has a son with Autism. She refered us to your website. I feel badly that our son was suffering with so much anxiety -we thought that it was his disease process and his age 18 yrs – never ever believed that it was partly due to change in TA – hindsight is 20/20. Our letter will explain are story better…. and you can give us some clear direction how to move on this…. hopefully one day we can mentor other parents… right now there is too much pain…Gwen

Comment on Contact by Dawn

Dawn — Fri, 20 Apr 2012 19:26:11 +0000

Hi Gwen – This is very troubling, particularly as your description suggests the school is violating your son’s rights: 1) to a TA with the appropriate qualifications to provide the support he needs (as per the Hewko legal decision) and 2) to be provided with a full educational program (expulsion of a child with special needs is one of the few situations that provides grounds for a provincial appeal). You need advocacy support and fast, as time is running out for your son. You should call the Autism Society of BC (www.autismbc.ca) and/or ACT (www.actcommunity.net), which is funded by the province to provide trained staff who can provide family support and advocacy in such situations. If they can’t help you, please email us urgently at momsonthemove@telus.net and we will try to connect you to a volunteer parent advocate.

Comment on Contact by Gwen Benty

Gwen Benty — Fri, 20 Apr 2012 17:29:54 +0000

We have a son with high functioning Austim in Grade 12. He has been intergrated since kingergarden – we spent the first 3 years in Montreal Quebec.
We have come for far – but he was just expelled Feb 20, 2012 – I can’t go into details in this email – other than to say he has never been violent in all his years at school -Has been experiencing anxiety in the last year and 1/2 – when the TA who was working with him successfully was bumped out of her position and a TA who did not want to work with him was given no choice to be assigned to his case. The school will not consider reintergration and is only funding one 1/2 day a week sick teacher on call to help complete work at home. He is supposed to graduate with a “Dogwood”. We have asked the school board for more hours and they at this point will not consider it. They want to have another meeting May 9 ….. we are upset as we feel that we are being put off…. and because of funding due to his diagnosis we feel that we are not being adequately treated.

Comment on More abuse revealed: BCACL urges enquiry into special needs foster care by Jeanette

Jeanette — Sat, 14 Apr 2012 02:44:33 +0000

My two children were both abused in special needs homes, specialised foster homes, foster home, group homes and even so bad they were hospetalised. no one would listen to me and my thoughts, I had to wait the year out until she could be reurned home. One of them beaten so badley they had over 100 blood blisters on there back and too many bruises to count. After many years of myself being in fostercare and being abused so many times myself I knew what to expect behind closed doors of those social workers who take our children away and give them to “professionals” who know how to properly handle them. But really I know all to well and me and my daughter have both have childhood diagnosis. Never be fooled…. those “specialised Homes” for the “special Needs children” arent so specialised afterall.

Comment on Saving Public Education by LD parent

LD parent — Wed, 28 Mar 2012 04:17:09 +0000

Thank you Dawne for such a thoughtful letter!

Comment on MOMS: Province, BCTF not putting students first in contract dispute by Wayne Fowler

Wayne Fowler — Sat, 10 Mar 2012 22:09:52 +0000

First I’d like to acknowledge that I think this is a good statement that would seem to represent the diversity of your organization while still stating strong and consistent values.

To be honest, as a teacher and parent of two children with identified special needs, when I first heard the idea that a cap on IEP students was discriminatory I thought this group was really missing the point. Yes in it’s own way it is but it was also an attempt to do better by those students we do have in our classes. However I am also not going to take the position that it is a panacea or that things can’t be done better. If there are better methods out there then I, and I hope my union, would be happy to hear them. We likely do need to be more sympathetic to your position

However if we are to work collaboratively there are some ways this organization may need to become more sympathetic to the needs of teachers. I’ll speak directly to two of your recommendations.

First is #4. An immediate return to work with no further disruption is only in the students best interest if the government agrees and demonstrates a genuine commitment to whatever process will accomplish the goal. Teachers just going back to work means that the interests of the students you speak for, the ones you will speak for in the future, and teachers will likely not be met. It would mean the government could just say “see the schools are open” and we would return to business as usual with the current less than adequate situation continuing.

My second concern is the idea that all additional funding increases go into returning staffing. While this would of course benefit teachers as well as students it requires teachers to allow their interests to again be sidelined. As your statement noted teachers gave up salary increases to gain class size limits and this was then taken from us. What you are expecting is teachers to pay for these improvements twice. It cost us the first time, ultimately with no benefit, and now we are to start from scratch and put off the needs of our own families a second time until you are satisfied. I understand that my point violates your starting point of putting kids first but to me your position is a slap in the face to teachers and treats them as if they had no interests other than serving children.

Those who disagree with teachers often say we are using the kids but there are times such as this were I feel students are used as a bargaining chip against me. If I am not willing to give and only gain by meeting the needs of the other “partners”, I, by your position statement, don’t put children first and therefore am somehow unworthy of the support of parents of students with special needs.

Comment on Contact by Dawn

Dawn — Fri, 09 Mar 2012 21:50:03 +0000

Thank you Martin! MOMS made for a nice acronym but dads have been a core part of our group from Day One and huge contributors to our work at every stage! Consider yourself one of many honourary and valued members of MOMkind!

Comment on Contact by Martin

Martin — Wed, 07 Mar 2012 16:25:47 +0000

I really like the positions that you guys are taking. It’s nice to finally find some people talking sense about special needs in public education in BC. It’s too bad you guys aren’t called Parents on the Move, but let me know if you need any help from Dads.

Comment on MOMS: Province, BCTF not putting students first in contract dispute by Cathie Camley

Cathie Camley — Mon, 05 Mar 2012 00:11:06 +0000

The Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms is law in every jurisdiction in Canada, and therefore, under that law, so is our children’s right to equitably access a public service – in this case, a public education. This is not a law that can be negotiated away or enhanced through contract negotiations or granted only in times of plenty. The law is the law, and when it is broken, there needs to be a consequence. Yet the Ministry of Education and many school districts have determined that equitable access is simply a goal that they are working towards achieving. What other Canadian law has been so ignored and rendered uninforceable as this one? It is my belief that there are few other groups of Canadians who have had their rights trampled upon with such regularity than those of students who have disabilities.

Comment on Starting a discussion: How do we guide change in community living? by Ken Stowell

Ken Stowell — Tue, 21 Feb 2012 07:01:01 +0000

Great letters and comment; For me, I have a hard time remembering what life was like before my wife’s brain injury. Like Forrest Gump said; Life is like a box of chocolates, you never know what your going to get. When she gets over one obsession she will start another. Hard to catch, so I have to be on guard for the next one. But once I realize what is happening I coach her about what she is doing, not telling her not to, that doesn’t work, but talking about it in a rational way, about a totally irrational issue (which is still rational to her) takes time and patience, which is something that an RN would not have the time, they would just remove the items that cause the issue. That type of attitude doesn’t work as it doesn’t teach or reach the underlying problems. Do you dare to invite the likes of Cristy Clark, Stephanie Cadieux, MLA’s or MP’s to Outside Noise?