I am not going to say too much here as I think the tweet from the Founder and Executive Director Tracy Humphreys, says it all.
BCEdAccess is a non-profit organization. “We champion and support children and youth who have disabilities and who are complex learners to reach their full potential in BC education, and in all aspects of their lives.”
At a press conference on December 29th, 2021, the Minister of Education, Jennifer Whiteside announced a phased delayed school start, in January of 2022 due to the spread of the Omicron variant; euphemism language to describe disabled children was used.
When I think of language, it shines a light on the darkness that people don’t want to reveal. I remember my own internalized ableism and what I was too ashamed to say out loud or discuss with others.
If someone cannot even describe a disabled person with the rights based language and say the word “disability”, that just shows you how far we need to go in the advocacy fight against socialized ableism.
Let’s just think about all of the horrors that society is uncomfortable talking about. Apparently, disability is part of that group.
We all grew up and are living in a very deeply entrenched ableist society. It’s time we use these opportunities to unpack and unlearn ableism together.
Thank you Tracy and BCEdAccess, for being such a strong voice.
There is a very concerning trend that is happening around this province in our school districts, and that is related to disappearing counselling notes and other sensitive student information.
We have case law from the Supreme Court of BC with expectations and instructions for the school boards on what they should be doing regarding counselling notes, but schools districts do not have policy as they should around this. This is regarding the notes being kept on school property and not taken home by the counsellor, notes being kept separate from the student record and locked, etc.
79 (1) Subject to the orders of the minister, a board must
(a) establish written procedures regarding the storage, retrieval and appropriate use of student records, and
(b) ensure confidentiality of the information contained in the student records and ensure privacy for students and their families.
If you are a parent who has had issues regarding this, or are concerned about this, I offer you a standard letter to send to your school board’s trustees and please CC: the Secretary-Treasurer and consider including the Ministry of Education in your email. Feel free to write your own with your own individual issues, however, for those who just don’t have the spoons at the moment but are still very concerned, I offer you a letter below. Please attach the case in the link above to your email. The email addresses you will need you can find on your school districts website.
The Ministry of Education needs to have their legislation match current laws. Please email the Ministry of Education or your MLA’s to express your feelings on this matter.
Dear Trustees,
It has come to our attention a concerning trend in missing counselling notes. Confidential student information has gone missing in many school districts and this is an administrative crack in the system that is a disadvantage to students and their parents for many reasons.
We would like to bring to your attention case law that has already been established by the Supreme Court of Canada that states counselling notes are protected under the School Act as property of the school district and that they should be kept locked and treated as school records. In this decision it also states that school boards should develop policy around the storage of counselling notes.
We are requesting that you review your own school policy around school records and confirm if counselling notes have been added to this policy and if not, to implement new policy connected to the legal standards established by the Supreme Court. Please see the attached case law for your reference.
To get us into the spooky spirit this week I present…
A true scary school tale in advocacy called The Scary Parent.
(I highly recommend you read this blog in the dark with a flashlight…or better yet, sneak into your kids fort and read it in there.)
I love spy movies.
Information is so valuable. People risk their lives for it. The power people have because of information cannot be underestimated. Information is knowledge and knowledge is POWER.
So, parents…what’s our power?
We know A LOT of information. (Insert evil laugh track)
We know A LOT.
There are Facebook groups out there where parents share stories, tips, resources and yes…education advocacy information.
This is terrifying news to school districts.
In these Facebook groups, policies are shared, laws and cases get posted, advocacy tips are offered and email examples are suggested. It’s pure group synergy.
There is only one rule about the Facebook group.
We don’t talk about the Facebook group.
Kidding…WE TALK ABOUT IT A LOT. (Rewind evil laugh track and press play again)
Now, here is the scary part. Not for the parents….the districts. We are invisible. They will never know if the parent walking into their office is a secret member, or not. If they have access to over 4,000 passionate parents. We travel incognito. We are right in front of their eyes, and they don’t…even…know…it! (Feel free to make scary faces right now using your flashlight to heighten the scary blog affect.)
Here is the best part…
We are growing. Oh no!!! They say!
The scariest parent to the district, is an educated one. I am talking about being educated in how to navigate THE SYSTEM.
THE SYSTEM is a beast. It only responds to policy, law and complaints filed with external organizations.
So, parents….
Go ahead.
Be that scary motherfucker you always wanted to be. Make THAT Facebook post. You go ahead and you fill out that intake form like nobodies’ business.
This is a true story. It starts off like a too common of a story in the education system. A child with undiagnosed learning disabilities struggles in elementary school. I know. This is an old story that people are sick and tired of hearing about. Yeah yeah, undiagnosed learning disability…whatever!! It has become so common it’s like discussing the rain in BC. This story could easily end in tragedy, but this story has a twist. An anxiety diagnosis happens in kindergarten, epilepsy for four years-100 seizures a day, profound Executive Function, ADHD combined diagnosis is in grade five, and learning disability in written expression is confirmed by the end of grade seven. (Assessment paid for privately by parents, I might add.)
Support only really started in grade six and by then, the teacher and LSS teacher were playing catch up. Grade seven hit and the teacher had eight students with IEP’s in her room. Reality kicks in and the need was just too great. Reluctantly, due to no solution in sight, academic achievement in specific subjects were put on the back burner and social and emotional survival was taking the lead.
High school starts, and for the first time EA support that his mother advocated so hard for, are finally being offered. By now this child is refusing additional help and doesn’t want a scribe. He’s used to struggling on his own, he has delt with bullies, and doesn’t want to stand out. He wants to be like everyone else. Struggling academically for him is a well-worn walked path, one that is predictable, that allows him to hide. His mother and his case manager are discussing the upcoming English class in a zoom conversation. Mom fears that without the support, he will fail. Based on history, she predicts nothing will get onto the page and without alternatives there will be nothing for the teacher to even mark him on. Child is still refusing. Mom knows how strapped the system is for resources and EA time. She doesn’t want to use up an EA that isn’t going to be utilized and have someone else go without. She reluctantly takes a long pause and says to the case manager, “Maybe he needs to fail. Maybe he needs to fall in order for him to realize and accept support.”
His case manager goes ahead and makes the decision to put an EA in the class anyways. The EA and child hit it off. They were a great match and really connected. For the first time, the child is truly accessing his education and the outpour of work is stunning. The mother flips through a stack of pages bursting out of her son’s binder. Page after page they are filled with stories and reflections. The mother could hear her son’s strong voice shine through the writing, all while written in the EA’s hand writing. The upcoming report card revealed a B. The child, who over the years, was conditioned to avoid his painful report cards, now willingly leaned in closer to the computer to see his mark, and smiles…with surprise.
At the IEP review meeting, not only does the child for the first time accept that the EA-scribe support was very much needed, but he requested for it to continue in the future for all English classes. To top it all off, he acknowledges and accepts a scribe for all future assessments, for ALL of his courses and for this to be done in the learning center.
He now has a chance. Finally!
Turns out he didn’t need to fail in order to accept support. He was used to failing. He needed to feel what it was like to succeed.
**Not providing assessments for learning disabilities and proper support for equitable access to education is a systemic failure that punishes children for how their brain is wired and has repercussions for the rest of their life, their children’s life, their children after them, and for all of us as a society. Children don’t live in a silo. When children are struggling in school, it affects every single member of the family. When children succeed in school, it affects every single member of the family.
Do you ever just get so tired of walking through the verbal minefield when talking to some school administration? It can be so exhausting. I came out of one meeting and wondered what in the world just happened in there???
Sometimes I feel like I have been taken by some scammer.
Or I just donated to some fraud non-profit organization?
What exotic trip did I just sign up for?
I think we should show up to our meetings with a court reporter.
Set up cameras like in those crime interrogation documentaries.
We’ll all show up in outfits like we just telephoned into The Matrix. Neo, we’re in.
All kidding aside, if you have a serious meeting ahead…drink your coffee before you attend. You’ll need to be on the ball.
Not all levels of advocacy reach this kind of intensity, but if and when they do…you’re not alone.
What emotionally hits me is that when my kids started kindergarten and I remember those visual memories of them entering the classroom for the first time, all of the emotions of your kids growing up, attending their first day of school…NEVER, never, ever did I ever in a million years, think I would end up in the position to be emailing lawyers. Never!
And yet…here I am.
There is a sadness to that. A non-death loss. We lose the innocence and naivety that parents of non-disabled children experience. We know exactly how oppressive the system is. There is grief around that. Why can’t I think public education is sunshine and lollipops too?
Do you take the red pill or blue pill? Do you find out about the reality of public education or do you live in blissful ignorance? If you have a child with a disability, you don’t get a choice. It’s made for you.
I was a secretary at a couple of schools and it was amazing to me, how many parents of non-disabled children didn’t even know the name of their child’s teacher. Seriously.
I on other hand, can recite school legislation, explain the difference between Ministry of Education policy and the Human Rights Code, and define the loopholes in a variety of external complaint processes.
This isn’t what I thought it was going to be like.
This is a loss that needs to be validated. The loss of innocence.
I am not the only one.
To the parent in the Facebook group who coined the term PTSD – “Post Traumatic School Disorder”. That’s a good one!
5 stages of grieving.
Denial – “Oh the system isn’t that bad…we must just be having a rough year. They aren’t ignoring my emails, they just are really busy.”
Anger – “What the #$@% is going on here, is this for real!?!?”
Bargaining – “I just want to have an honest conversation; I’ll even sign an NDA”
Depression – “What’s the point. Things will never change.”
Acceptance. – “I don’t care, I am filing anyways. Every little bit helps.”
Focusing on the negativity of everything is going to get us nowhere. However, toxic positivity and not even acknowledging the pain isn’t healthy either.
How many parents have gone through the stages of grief? Denial. Anger. Bargaining. Depression. Acceptance. What stage are you in?
Let’s sit here together and acknowledge what this feels like.
When you have a disability, you have a different kind of relationship with rejection than non-disabled people do. Especially as a disabled child your day is spent in school receiving various forms of micro and macroaggression experiences of rejection all day. We receive all sorts of distorted forms of feedback that erode our sense of self-worth and question our identity based on other people’s biases. As a child you are not aware of this and internalize people’s ableist perceptions as accurate facts and it shapes a warped version of yourself for you to struggle with. No wonder people with disabilities struggle with accurate self-assessment.
Rejection is a normal experience that everyone experience. Not everyone is going to like us. Not everyone is going to want to date us. Not everyone is going to want to hire us. That is pretty standard for every single person. The sliding scale of the intensity of that reality depends on many variables. Depends how close you fit into societies definition of ideal.
There are movements happening. Movements looking to reshape the definition of beauty within the disabled community, accepting the different forms of the human body. Self-help acceptance movements in various disabilities have been building since the 1970’s in various communities and are quite established now.
When people dismiss the importance of tackling ableism as if it is no big deal, bring the discussion to the topic of rejection. Rejection is something that we can all understand and it can be a connecting point of empathy. Everyone knows what rejection feels like.
Groupthink is defined as “a process of flawed decision making that occurs as a result of strong pressures among group members to reach an agreement”.
“Groupthink is a phenomenon that occurs when the desire for group consensus overrides people’s common sense desire to present alternatives, critique a position, or express an unpopular opinion. Here, the desire for group cohesion effectively drives out good decision-making and problem solving.” mindtools.com
RELEVANCE TO PARENTS: This could be why specialty programs never evolve, why some programs designed to fail are accepted by Boards, why some programs are described as a “dumpster on fire” and how they slip through the cracks. How things that are obviously broken in schools, stay broken, and how systemic oppression to marginalized groups are rarely challenged.
Does anyone remember the NASA Challenger disaster that exploded in space? When they analyzed the process that led to the deadly decisions, they concluded it was partly due to Groupthink.
Groups that are too cohesive, too tightly bonded, too tightly dependent on each other, too tightly socially connected, and are too similar, will bread an environment where it’s best that everyone just agree. Even when the evidence is laid out in front of them, it will be ignored and the pressure to agree will push people to just go with the flow and carry on. Conflict, even productive conflict, will be discouraged. An environment will become the norm where no one speaks up…even when they should. Groups that are too cohesive apply social pressure for everyone to conform. Disagreement is then seen as a negative trait, insulting to the members, or that person is labelled a trouble maker and their input is disregarded.
It takes a specific type of person to want to be a teacher. Many teachers have similar personality traits and temperaments, a common thread amongst all of them. For the people who have the desire to advance their careers, and for the ones who fit the tight mold of administration, I feel it’s a fair assessment in concluding they are all expected to belong to a very exclusive highly dependent social-work group.
Groups that create an environment where it is safe to disagree with the topic, are the level that we want our district and Boards to function. Especially because open system groups are the most responsive to change and feedback from their community. **Feedback is a crucial part of the program management cycle.
Points of impact:
Program development and program maintenance
Whistleblowing, staff not being able to bring up concerning issues
One way to tell if the Board of your school district is potentially stuck in a Groupthink path is to conduct an interaction diagram.
When you attend Board meetings…is everyone just agreeing? Constructive conflict is healthy. If you are doing an interaction diagram and all you see are support lines…you might have a poorly functioning Board.
Common Roles in Groups:
Task Roles
Defines problems
Seeks information
Gives information
Seeks opinions
Gives opinions
Tests feasibility
Group Building and Maintenance Roles
Coordinating
Mediating-harmonizing
Orienting-facilitating
Supporting-encouraging
Following
Individual Roles (Non-functional)
Blocking
Out of Field
Digressing
After a few meetings you can start to identify if statements are ones that are asking questions for clarification, which statements are supporting other points of view, which ones are blocking, disagreeing, requesting more info etc. Pick a few that you observe as repeated the most often and then start plotting. For every statement/question put a line. The arrows that go into the center of the group are statements that are said to the group. The arrows that directed at a specific person go directly to them. Then for any repeats of similarly purposed statements get a tick on the same arrow. This allows you to get a visual of how they function as a group. Too many supportive statements aren’t necessarily a sign of a functioning healthy group.
If school districts are interested in auditing their staff meetings from time to time, to get a birds-eye-view so to speak of how they function, the person doing the tracking, can’t be involved. Some meetings move really quickly and it will take practice for people to quickly identify and assess the types of statements/questions made. This is a quick way to take a pulse of the group for anything on the surface, and groupthink could be obvious.
For the parents attending board meetings, it’s great practice. Board meetings tend to move slowly so it’s a great place to practice and build your skill. Soon, you’ll be able to identify roles people play in PAC or school meetings.
Ideally, we want Boards of Education and district teams to have a high level of trust and respect in the group, where discussion or disagreement is welcomed, critical thinking is expected and they are open to feedback.
Sent via Email – Friday July 23rd, 2021 (Edited – number of complaints removed for blog)
Dear Commissioner,
As a parent who submitted X TRB complaints last July 2020, and now X new complaints related to the conduct of the certificate holders providing false/misleading information during the TRB process, I am urging you to please review the process for the Teacher’s Regulation Branch through the lens of fairness for parents and students.
Change requests:
Provide more details and transparency to the process on the website and through written communication.
On the complaint form, explain if they need more space than what is given in the box, that they can submit an attachment.
Inform parents that if they become aware of new evidence, they may submit it and when the last date of submission is in their acceptance letter.
Explain that if they experience any retaliation due to their complaint, that they can submit a separate complaint for the conduct of the retaliation in their acceptance letter or have this written on the complaint form at end when it explains that the teacher will be aware of their name and attachments.
Explain in the decision letter that if they feel that the certificate holders provided false information or withheld any information to mislead the Commissioner that they feel impacted the final decision, they can submit a separate complaint for that specifically.
On the statics page, show how many parents’ complaints vs. district reports made it to the consent resolution stage or investigation stages.
The website is a maze of information and is confusing to navigate through. I like the videos, but they are hidden in the website. There is no clear pathway to navigate through the information. I am suggesting modifications to the website to make it more accessible for parents.
After the initial review or investigation is complete with the certificate holder, the Commissioner should be allowed to contact the parents to clarify any information the Commissioner is missing, or is unclear about. That should include clarifying information or perceptions with the children or parents. There should be no assumptions made or have any unanswered questions from the Commissioner in the decision letters. Parents should be able to see initial findings from the Commissioner and be given the chance to offer any other information or evidence that is relevant before the final decision is made. We have no idea how the lawyers are going to take the situations and spin them. Myself and many parents have felt that their words were manipulated and false information or incorrect information was in their decision letter without an opportunity to clarify.
The process should be viewed through the lens of parents who may have disabilities themselves, be part of a vulnerable group, and that this experience is stressful. Follow-up after the initial decision is therefore crucial to the fairness process. When you read a decision letter that has false information and there is no chance to be heard after that, parents feel re-victimized all over again. The TRB process has been traumatic to parents, compounding the stress they have already experienced within their school district. Students will also feel victimized if they feel that they were not believed. Parents feel they are taking a big risk in filing these complaints, and many do not follow this process for fear of retaliation or lack of trust in systems.
Please feel free to contact me to discuss or clarify any of these change requests. I am more than willing to elaborate and explain any of this further.
Please confirm that you have received my letter. Please take all the time you need to reflect on my requests. I appreciate that you have a tight schedule, I would appreciate an approximate timeline of when you are able to respond.
Kind Regards,
Kim Block CC: Ministry of Education, Ombudsperson
EDIT: Added in a second email after feedback from another parent. I completely agree with their point.
“I would request that any of the certificate holder’s evidence that is referenced in the Commissioners decision letter needs to be provided to the complainant. A parent has a right to any and all information that pertains to their child that the school district is in possession of and there is no grounds for why this information is being withheld. It is a one sided process with no transparency when you get a decision letter that continuously references the certificate holders evidence but then does not outline what that evidence was and when the evidence is not provided for referencing. The Commissioner should be held accountable to demonstrate how he came to his conclusions and exactly how he substantiated his findings. Otherwise this makes it very difficult to appeal on any level but specifically to the Supreme Court within 60 days. If you have to use FOI to obtain the information there is no way to meet this.” – PARENT
(For the readers of this blog, I would just like to make it clear that I never experienced any retaliation from filing the TRB complaints and that request is on behalf of other parents who did experience retaliation.)
Does anyone remember a Twinkie? Do they even still make these?
Cut it half down the center and it will look like this….
This is one point-of-view, one perspective.
Cut it length wise…
This is another point-of-view, another perspective.
If you looked at the last two pictures individually, you could easily think you are looking at completely different objects. When in fact, you are looking at the same twinkie. Two different perspectives, same object.
I have worked in public schools. I am also a parent/advocate in the school system. Two perspectives. Same Twinkie.
If you are ever in the middle of trying to bring two conflicting groups together…look for the Twinkie in their communication. The reason they are arguing in the first place, is because there is one!
I think educators and parents have a lot more in common than we think. I think we often feel we are looking at two different objects, when if fact we are looking at the same thing with sometimes different understandings of how to arrive at the same goal. Sometimes. Sometimes we are looking at the same Twinkie.
Let’s larger the scope beyond parents of disabled children and front-line staff. There are many stakeholders in education. A mixed bouquet of perspectives. Do we all share a common goal?
So…when it comes to inclusive education…what is the Twinkie?
