Tag: ableism

Being Ignored & Disability (In Education)

Disabled children and adults have an imprinted connection to the experience of “being ignored”.

Many disabled adults have grown up and experienced during their childhoods being ignored, a burden, pushed aside, and/or not believed. For many disabled children, we survived by being small, quiet, invisible and blending into the background as much as possible.

As a disabled adult when advocating for your disabled children, being ignored is especially triggering.

We are teleported back in time, back to helpless children.

This time, needing to advocate, we are forced to behave in ways that are the opposite of our survival strategies.

Quite the leap.

In the book Being Heumann: An Unrepentant Memoir of A Disability Rights Activist by Judith Heumann with Kristen Joiner, she explains it so well:

“When someone ignores you, it’s an intentional display of power. They’re essentially acting like you don’t exist, and they do it because they can. They believe that nothing will happen to them. Ignoring silences people. It intentionally avoids resolution or compromise. It ignites your worst fears of unworthiness because it makes you feel that you deserve to be ignored. Inevitably, being ignored puts you in the position of having to choose between making a fuss or accepting the silent treatment. If you stand up to the ignorer and get in their face, you break the norms of polite behaviour and end up feeling worse, diminished, demeaned.”

Silence and delay is a common tool used in the education system to silence parents. It’s a tool used all the way from trustees, district admin, principals and teachers. Not everyone will respond in this way of course, but when you have valid issues and those issues are around discrimination, with expectations for change….get ready.

I have experienced the silent treatment a lot in earlier advocacy years and I have heard many stories from families absolutely pushed to their limits when dealing with the silent treatment, which is why I wrote this page on silence, which gets viewed regularly.

http://www.speakingupbc.com/education-advocacy/silence/ – TIPS on how manage silence.

The silent treatment is dehumanizing.

And when you are watching your children suffer and experience harm AND you are being ignored, I haven’t even found the words to describe the experience. But I can describe how it made me feel physically. Sick. Nauseous. Chronic insomnia.

I wonder if school staff really know and understand what they are doing to us?

Fight back.

File a complaint with Ombudsperson BC.

Keep sending emails.

Keep going up the chain.

Email the Ministry of Education and let them know you are being ignored and feel free to CC: the people who are ignoring you in the email.

They use this strategy on parents because it works.

We can’t let them feel it’s a successful strategy.

Taking up space can feel like a protest.

Do it.

Take up space.

It’s ok.

You aren’t alone.

We can all do this together and turn many single raindrops into a flood.

Family Status Protection

BIG NEWS!

For parents who are concerned about losing their job due to parent responsibilities of raising their children, this is a step in the right direction.

“Vancouver, B.C. – On Friday, the B.C. Court of Appeal issued a decision that clarifies the circumstances in which parents and caregivers can seek accommodation in their workplaces.

The Court released their decision in Gibraltar Mines Ltd. v. Harvey, a case alleging discrimination against the mother of a young child by her employer. B.C.’s Human Rights Commissioner intervened in the case to address the legal test for family status discrimination in B.C.

‘Family status’ is a protected ground in B.C.’s Human Rights Code, prohibiting discrimination based on a person’s family situation, such as if a person is a caregiver for children or elderly parents. To determine whether family status discrimination has taken place, decision makers in B.C. have traditionally used a two-part test. This test asked whether the employer unilaterally changed a worker’s terms of employment and whether there was a serious interference with a substantial parental or other family duty as a result. The main issue before the Court of Appeal in Gibraltar was whether the law did, in fact, require a unilateral change to terms of employment as part of the legal test to establish discrimination.

Friday’s ruling means that employees can qualify for a workplace accommodation when any condition of their employment has an adverse effect on an important parental duty. Complainants are not required to show that their employer has changed their terms of employment. This is particularly important for parents of young children whose parental obligations may change during their employment and conflict with their workplace responsibilities.”

“The Court’s decision is welcome and is a significant win for gender equality in the workplace in many ways. It is an important step forward, but there remain outstanding issues that need to be resolved to ensure that mothers and other caregivers are able to access the full protection of human rights law.”Kasari Govender, B.C.’s Human Rights Commissioner

For the full release read the HR Commissioners announcement

For more media regarding this:
The Canadian Press
Burnaby Now
Global News

NEW! Dyslexia Advocacy Society of BC has a BLOG!

Woohoo!!!

Dyslexia Advocacy Society of BC Contact us 778-839-1540
Picture of the front page of the blog titled Dyslesia BC Blog, first post: Lets make sure we get structured literacy into BC schools.

Dyslexia BC now has a blog and what are they posting about?

Some upcoming advocacy action. That’s what!

“Next week, starting on April 27, 2023 the British Columbia School Trustees Association (BCSTA) is having their 2023 AGM and they have a motion at the table submitted from the North Vancouver School Board (No.44)  that   is called “Learning Disability (Dyslexia) and Policy/Guidelines for Screening in Kindergarten.”  To help support this motion we have written a letter to the BCSTA Board.”

To read the letters and support the very important motions, visit their blog at Dyslexia BC Blog

How do I not Let you Break Me?

I was listening to a podcast for my corrections class and one of the women who has been incarcerated was crying and sharing her experience of how she refused to let the prison system break her soul. She was worthy of a better life.

Her determination to keep herself going during the most difficult period in her life is something that has been floating around in my thinking.

As an advocate, I have hit a wall.

I feel exhausted.

Mentally and emotionally – pushed to my limits.

Disability management – pushed to my limits.

Close to burnout.

And I have 3 exams to write this week.

How do I not become bitter? Broken? And completely mistrusting?

How do I not give up on people?

I can mostly keep myself afloat.  Looking for the positive. Self-care.  Reminding myself of all the usual things I tell myself that is routed in hope.

My positive cup has been drained by recent events and I am just so fucking tired. More than what I was prepared for. It’s been a long fight.

I must complete a task forcing me to go over every detail with a fine tooth comb. Reliving the details over and over.

How do I keep myself in the game? It’s not over yet.

How do I not let you break me?

An Open Letter to the Trustees of SD35-Langley

Dear Trustees,

I registered for the information session, Tuesday January 31st, regarding AP 355 procedure. At the last minute I was unable to attend due to the physical location of the meeting, but would have been able to attend if the meeting was online. I would like to communicate my concerns regarding your procedure. Even though my children are not in your district, other districts and parents are taking notice and your procedure has wider implications for other school districts to follow with similar procedures.

My concerns include the following:

  1. Potential for misuse. People in positions of power can use policies such as this as stepping stones for wider implications and inferences that leave vulnerable people even more vulnerable.
  2. Age. Other districts who have an exclusion policy have an age minimum of 16. However, this administrative procedure starts at kindergarten. That means some children being impacted by this procedure will be as young as 4 years old. This becomes enforceable on DAY 1 of kindergarten. The “spirit” of your procedure is very different than the other 3 policies I found online.
  3. Costs. There are financial costs to this procedure on families that are not being addressed by the school district. Will parents be reimbursed for their lost wages due to not being able to work for 3 days at a time? Due to systemic issues that are created and maintained by the Ministry of Education and how the public service of education is delivered in this province, it leaves parents shouldering the financial responsibilities and not the school district. Districts can be held financially responsible for human rights violations, lost wages and the cost of outside school programs. What happens here?
  4. Appeals. I have concerns that there is not already an established separate appeals process that is not a very cumbersome time consuming section 11 appeals process.  
  5. Delivery. I have concerns in which this information night was delivered. It could have easily been on zoom so that families with disabled children could access the information.  The barriers were evident and did not go unnoticed by the families who could not attend.  Due to the small number of people who were able to physically attend the information session, compared to the number of concerned members of the disability community who were interested in attending, the small “sample size” group who attended, you will be unable to make inferences to the larger population and feel that you fully understand everyone’s concerns.  It fulfills checking off a box on your to-do list, but little else, and I implore you to consider further community consultation via online as well.
  6. Reporting. Will there be reporting expectations from the district admin to the board so there is oversight? How often will these reports be expected to be reviewed and is there going to be a public anonymous quantitative data reporting system for transparency and legitimacy of your procedure? If you say this procedure will benefit the families for accountability, how will you be demonstrating that to the public that with evidence?
  7. Vague terms. It concerns me that there is a lot of vague undefined terms in this policy with no reference. Acts have definitions. For example, What does “exceptional circumstances” mean?
  8. Legal consultation. Will the school district be accessing their lawyers for legal consultation during the implementation of this policy? Will parents have the same access to legal consultation?
  9. Human System. Education is delivered through the means of a human system, designed and maintained by people. It is flawed and socially constructed by people who don’t often experience oppression. We are also in a state of educational crisis with severe staffing shortages and untrained adults working in the system who are not trained teachers or EA’s. The stress level of staff who are working in a system of scarcity and desperation will impact the learning environment and employees emotional regulation. This will transfer to the culture and behaviour of those children who are also navigating this human system. Children are not the creators of the environment that they are entering, they are reacting to their environment. It is recognized that we live in a society that is ableist, racist, classist, and education is delivered through a colonized lens. The children who are struggling to adapt to this system and who are most vulnerable will be mostly affected. How are families supported as they navigate this system that they have no control over? As per the school act, final decisions are the purview of the board and not the parents. Parents are responsible for facilitating decisions made by the schools or they can be seen as not fulfilling their duty to cooperate in good faith and human rights complaints will be dismissed. If parents disagree with the methodology that is being forced on their child, what is their recourse that will not risk their employment or make them homeless as they cannot pay their rent due to extended exclusion?  There are bound to be cultural and/or philosophical framework disagreements as professionals who work in disability education cannot even agree on appropriate approaches for specific disabilities and these disagreements even within these professions can lead to fierce emotional debate.  For example, Autism and Dyslexia.
  10. Diagnosis. Not all disabilities are even identified or screened by education staff, therefore many children are not even appropriately diagnosed. The mental health profession is understaffed and extremely stretched very thin with many people not being able to access supports until they are in extreme crisis, and even then the needs are just to high. In a failing system, with so many children falling through the cracks, how does this policy ensure that the education system is adapting to the needs on a macro systemic level? Does the Ministry of Education support this policy and do they plan on providing the school district with funding to ensure that children are accessing education in equitable ways? Will the Ministry of Education ensure that TOC’s will be provided so staff can have time to meet and consult with the appropriate professionals? And on that note, is the BCTF on board with this policy and 3 day cap? If the expectation is meetings are to be taking place and plans designed within 3 days, in the union on board with ensuring their staff are aware of their expectations? How will further professional training be provided to reduce the need for this policy to even exist?

Your responsibility in creating a procedure that doesn’t cause harm is very heavy. Please do not speed along the process. Please take into account the very community that you think this policy will benefit and that means a lot more consultation with community and collaboration with external non-profit organizations who advocate for vulnerable families.

If this procedure is discriminatory or harmful, external organizations will end up being involved in the process eventually and it will cause more harm and stress for everyone involved: school staff, parents, and most importantly the children. As young as 4 years old, on DAY 1 of kindergarten.

Sincerely,

Kim Block

Here is a link to their information and admin procedure link

A Year in Review

The year of 2022 started off with my blog The Dance of Advocacy and Forgiveness, which gives me a chuckle given the current circumstances my year is ending in. I am getting a lot of practice.

This year has been a year of discovery and finding out just how far the rabbit hole to Wonderland goes.

In 2022 I found out my Top 10 Shocking Advocacy Discoveries, and I can tell you that this year coming up will require an update. Swimming upstream in education is important.

Some exciting learnings also happened. The groundbreaking  case showed the Human Rights Tribunal accepting a parent attached to their child’s education discrimination complaint. That possibility is eye-opening and will pave the way for more parents.  I definitely have a much better understanding of the Duty to Accommodate and why Documentation and Diagnosis are so important on the legal fronts. The struggles of the system have also been revealed to me. I’ll be keeping an eye on for any upcoming cases to share.

Didn’t wish I had such an example of ableism in education to report on, and can say this experience has repeated itself again. Different teacher, same outcome. This similar behaviour has happened four times so far.

I have several advocacy projects still open, active and ongoing involving multiple government departments. Change is slow. It requires a lot of patience and persistence. I have been forever changed by everything I have experienced in the last 3+ years. I am not the same person.  Well….I am but, but just amplified. 😉 It was all buried, but it’s all coming out now.

One of the healing experiences for me has been this website and blog. The families who reach out to me due to this website have been eye-opening, healing, and motivating all at once. To all the parents/guardians out there who are advocating to try and make it easier and less heavy for someone else, I see you. So many of us are out there. Each trying our best at our own puzzle piece.

Systems always change over time. We may think we are getting nowhere, but there is always a ripple effect even if we don’t directly see it. People may think that nothing will ever change. But that is not true. Things could always get worse.  Good people need to speak up. Everyone else who has advocated before us needs their work continued. I am continually gaining strength and inspiration from all the parents who have taken their human rights cases to hearings across Canada. You never know how you effect people. Doing the right thing isn’t necessarily easy. There are a lot of advocates working in and out of the different systems. So much to be grateful for and learn from.

This year has been quite a year… a part of me doesn’t even want to wonder what this new year will bring. I can feel that it’s going to be a whopper. But you know what…. I am ready.

Wishing you all a Happy New Year!

Speaking Up BC – One Year Anniversary

So….I am a little chatty…about education and about disability.

I want to send out a heartfelt thank you to ALL of the people who have encouraged me and connected with my writing. Whether you agree or disagree with my perspective, it’s an honor to take up some space in your thought process. I will admit, some of my blogs are a little…”spicy”. So many wonderful people have reached out. For those who find my website organically and are asking questions about your own advocacy journey, it fills my heart to be able to pass along information I have learnt along the way. We are not alone.

This website went from solely being shared through BCEd Access’s social media Facebook group and over the year it has blossomed. People are finding this website, sharing it with others, and now I get to refer them to BCEd Access. So many wonderful friendships have grown over this past year. My heart is full.

In addition to my pages on this website where my learning is all stored…well the stuff I can share publicly 😉 , here is a list of the blogs July 2021-July 2022. From my heart to yours. Disability rights and public education are worth fighting for. We may not have created this system, but if we are just observers and not active participants, then we are certainly maintaining it. Every little step, no matter how small, all makes a ripple effect. Everything builds. There are so many advocates in the system, past, present and upcoming future. We are all connected by the invisible string.

Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed, citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.’ – Margaret Mead

From the beginning, starting in July 2022

Expectations of Parents Behaviour: Why are so many parents losing their shit?

The Unpredictability of Public Education

The Impending Education Tsunami

Systemic Impacts of Scarcity in Education

Context and Meaning

IEP Meetings in Public Education

Twinkie Theory

A Call for Fair Process

Groupthink…Does it Exist in Schools and on Boards of Education?

Rejection. Our Starting Point.

Submission for Budget Consultation. 2022

August 2021

Sex Education, Sexual Health and Disability

The Non-Death Loss for Parents of Disabled Children, All over this Province

Accessing Education

September 2021

Are Lawsuits the only Chance Parents have in Shaping the Education System?

You are Just not Disabled…Yet

…and Then You Take the House

Am I Disabled Enough?

October 2021

Do You Trust Me?

I Give Myself Permission

The Scary Parent

Missing Counselling Notes

December 2021

Let’s Talk Language

Education Case Law

Shame and Disability

Rally Speech

Love Ableism, xoxo

January 2022

Letter to SFU

The Dance of Advocacy and Forgiveness

February 2022

Swimming Upstream in the Education System

Human Rights – Lunch and Learn

March 2022

Top 10 Shocking Education Advocacy Discoveries

April 2022

What does Ableism Look Like in Schools? It Looks Like This?

Why a Diagnosis?

Case Decisions and Reports Connected to Education

Ableism Policy – Why Should We Care?

Groundbreaking BC HRT – Accepts Parent Added on Child’s HR Complaint

The State of Human Rights Violations in BC

May 2022

Ministry of Education & Wilful Blindness

Freedom of Information Request Denied – Ombudsperson

Defamation. You said What?

June 2022

Board of the Rings

Teacher’s Regulation Branch (Professional Conduct Unit)

Keeping the Hope Alive

Advocacy Summer Camp

July 2022

Speaking Up BC – One Year Anniversary

Advocacy Summer Camp

Hello Parents.

Welcome to advocacy summer camp. You have two months to get in advocacy shape for the upcoming school year in the fall. Well….technically you don’t have two months, advocacy is a life long learning journey, but it’s more of a reflection of the sense of urgency we all feel when our kids are struggling.

If you are new to advocacy and are wondering where in the world to start, here is your summer reading.

Let’s start here. With information. The more you know, the better you will be at advocating for your child.

Start with Your District Website

  1. What are their policies from the Board of Education?
    1. Each district will have a Board section with lots of policies around suspension, restraint/seclusion, anti-ableism, assessments, etc. Not every district will have the same type of policy.
  2. What are their documents around conflict resolution path?
    1. Most districts will have documents on HOW to resolve conflicts within your school. They have a path they want you to take based on hierarchy. Know that if your concern is serious, you can jump and skip steps.
  3. What is the appeals process?
    1. Everyone can submit an appeal to the Board of Education, and it should be outlined on your schools website. You can also find it referenced in the School Act. Section 11.
  4. What is your districts code of conduct?
    1. Read the district code of conduct. Also be aware of Section 177 under the School Act. There is no appeals process if this happens to you.

District websites can be a maze. A complete maze. Keep going.

Look at Provincial Manuals and Acts

  1. The School Act
  2. The Teacher’s Act
  3. FIPPA (Freedom of Information and Privacy Protection Act
  4. The Erase Website
  5. Special Needs Manual
    1. In this Manual (first page) there are links to the Special Needs Order, Individual Education Plan Order, Student Progress Report Order, Support Services for Schools Order
  6. Diversity in BC Schools Policy
  7. The Multiculturalism Act
  8. The Human Rights Code
  9. DPAC Parents manuals on advocacy and policy
    1. There are LOTS of information and manuals on this site.
  10. The complete list by the Ministry of Education, including homeschooling and online learning

Legal Cases in Education

  1. Link for education cases
  2. CanLii
    1. For instructions on how to research your own using CanLii scroll to bottom of the page.
  3. Education Law

What are my External Organization options?

  1. Professional Conduct Unit / Teacher’s Regulation Branch
    1. Here is my tip sheet on how to file a complaint
  2. Ombudsperson
    1. Here is my info sheet on more details
    2. Fair Schools Report
  3. Office of Information and Privacy Commissioner
    1. When you submit a Freedom of Information request with the school. If you feel you are missing information or they have redacted too much, you can submit a complaint and they will review it and investigate.
  4. Human Rights Tribunal
    1. Human Rights Clinic (lots of information, blogs, free education workshops, services)
    2. Here is my tip sheet.

Where Can I go for Advocacy Help?

  1. Inclusion BC
  2. Family Support Institute
  3. Dyslexia BC
  4. BCEdAccess to Education – Facebook group and website
  5. Independent Service Providers for advocacy support and counselling (email me and I’ll refer you)
  6. Legal Help
  7. Dial-A-Lawyer
  8. If you want a specific Education Lawyer – email me, I can refer you.

What about the Process of Advocacy?

  1. How to deal with silence
  2. Advocacy tips
  3. When going to the media, be careful of defamation.
  4. Most school districts have a retainer with Harris & Co . Be aware that their lawyers may be reviewing your emails way earlier than you think.
  5. **** I HIGHLY recommend you get support, and I REALLY encourage people to consider joining the BCEdAccess Facebook group with over 4,500 parents who have a vast knowledge of advocacy and insight and support. You are not alone. You don’t need to do this alone.

This page was last updated on July 21, 2022.

IF anyone has any more information of manuals that they feel belong on this list, please email me and I will update it.

Ministry of Education & WILFUL BLINDNESS??

Can the Attorney General intervene with the Ministry of Education over Wilful Blindness??

Legal term – Wilful Blindness: “The Supreme Court of Canada held that wilful blindness is best described as “deliberate ignorance” and emphasized that it should be treated as a state of mind that is equivalent to actual knowledge.” & “Wilful blindness…involves no departure from the subjective inquiry into the accused’s state of mind which must be undertaken to establish an aider or abettor’s knowledge.” (Verdon-Jones S, 2020, p.98)

  1. Deliberate Ignorance of Case Law Regarding Counselling Notes

I emailed the Ministry of Education and their Legislation department on October 27th, 2021 and informed them of a gap in their legislation connected to counselling notes, and an order from the OIPC (Office of Information Privacy Commissioner) and the upheld decision of such an order by the BC Supreme Court.

I have blogged about it.

The Ministry of Education ignored my multiple emails and my attempts at communication. I filed an Ombudsperson complaint in early December, which forced them to communicate with me and on March 7th, 2022 we finally had a conversation. They acknowledged the gap in the system.  They have been aware for 7 months and so far…I haven’t seen or heard of any changes. The Board of Education has also been aware since October 26th, 2021 and I have not seen or know about any attempts at updating policy to reflect case law, which the Ministry of Education states is their responsibility.  They are also ignoring my emails regarding this topic.

  • Deliberate Ignorance of Human Rights Violations across the Province

Due to a Freedom of Information request and a phone call with the finance department it was revealed that the Ministry of Education isn’t tracking human rights violation financial data that are occurring across the province. The Freedom of Information on the financial implications of such complaints had to come from the Ministry of Finance. Talk about deliberate ignorance.  I have also written a blog about this topic.

  • Deliberate Ignorance in the Professional Conduct Unit department. (Formerly – Teacher’s Regulation Branch)

I have emailed the Ministry of Education, the Executive Director of the TRB and the Commissioner. I have raised serious issues regarding their process and their legislation and the connection with Ombudsperson. They refuse to respond or discuss these issues. I am not telling them their welcome mat is crooked, I am telling them their house is on fire. They undemocratically responded by closing the door. There will be an upcoming blog about this. It’s been over a year and processes are still occurring with Ombudsperson regarding these issues. More to come about this later. Last year I blogged about a call for fair process. Since then, the story gets deeper. For those who need some inside tips on the process, here you go.

  • Deliberate Ignorance of Educational Malpractice

When I presented the Ministry of Education with a document containing evidence of my allegations of educational malpractice, they referred me to Ombudsperson and the Teacher’s Regulation Branch. Both due to systemic and legislative reasons were dead ends. When I went back to them, they apologized and said there was nothing they could do. It turns out there are no avenues for accountability in the education system regarding educational malpractice. Nothing.

What are we supposed to do when we have a government body refusing to uphold case law, deliberating ignoring human rights violations, closing the door of any conversation related to systemic oppression, and having no accountability system for allegations of malpractice?

Anyone have any ideas?????

I’d love to hear them.

Seriously.

*****************

References

Verdon-Jones, Simon N. (2020). Criminal law in Canada: Cases, questions, and the code. (7th edition). Top Hat.

What Does Ableism Look Like in Schools? It Looks Like This!

When a teacher daily allows a student with a learning disability to fail their class, but does not even lift a finger to inform the case manager or parent, that is ableism and its discrimination. Disabled children failing, falling behind and being excluded without accommodations have become the normality of the education system. It’s so common, it is woven into the fabrics of the system.

They just invisibly slip through the cracks, while a detailed IEP sits in a student database system collecting digital dust.

The fact that the Ministry of Education intentionally doesn’t even track information regarding the human rights violations that are occurring across the province is an example of ableism. Disability issues don’t affect them, so they have the privilege to ignore it. Want to know how to systemically keep a marginalized group of people oppressed? Keep them off your radar to begin with. OH…and by the way…the group the people the Ministry of Education are intentionally oppressing, are disabled CHILDREN and their family unit.

What is even more profound is that these teachers who are discriminating are caring people. They love teaching and are inspired by the creations of their students. We think ableist teachers are lurking somewhere in the dark with DON’T CARE tattooed on them, when in fact that simply isn’t the case. When children are ignored and neglected in the education system by good teachers, that is obvious discrimination at its finest. The “other” students get their gifts, and the disabled students get left alone, left behind, and just….left.  There are lovely people out there in the world completely unaware of their own biases and the normality of disabled children failing, just blends in with the wall paper.  It’s not even a big thing. It’s just something that happens. Shrug.

This is very common in the education system, and the ableism these kids experience is then internalized, becomes part of their self-concept, self-esteem and identity. Want to know why kids turn to drugs and crime? Failure in the education system has been proven to be foundational in many of the peer reviewed journal articles. IT’s not that we do not know. It’s not that more studies are need to be done. We have all the information. Government is just biased, ableist and discriminatory and this shows in their government run and funded education system. It oozes out of the pores of all 60 school districts. It’s not obvious to the people who are not impacted by it. You need to look at the system and not just focus on what is there, but what is missing. Who is missing?

We need to flip this education system upside down and inside out. The future of their lives and our society depends on it.

Ministry of Education- It is time for anti-ableism leadership from your government.

Are we on your radar? Or will we continually be swept under the rug?