Tag: inclusion

Go Ahead…Piss me off. Good Luck with That.

This blog is about why Speaking Up BC started, why it is still ticking, and why it will ALWAYS be ticking.

100% this website exists because of how my children’s school district and their lawyers have been engaging with me. Why they think their adversarial strategy benefits them, I have no idea. I know they don’t like this website. I actually at one point thought I wanted to just shut everything down and slip away back into my old life. I actually almost deleted Speaking Up BC. And then they did something that ensured that would never happen. That is when I had it confirmed just how dirty this system really is, and for that reason, I am all in. Until my final breath.

When I think about it, they have been funding my advocacy projects and provided me with life experiences that I have been able to turn into knowledge and lived experience to pass along to all of you. Pain into purpose. All of the content of this website is because of them and how they chose to engage with me. Feel free to send them flowers.

If they did the exact opposite of everything they have been doing, I guarantee you, all the complaints I have filed would never have happened. This website would never exist. The HR decisions never would have been. P.A.T.H. would never have been created, and clearly P.A.T.H. needs to exist for a very long time. They have provided me with ample evidence.

Not only do I have decisions, yup 3 decisions, from the BC Human Rights Tribunal, each with its own gems, benefiting parents’ advocacy. (All paid for by the school district, hundreds of thousands of dollars.) But I have learned so much and have become the advocate I am today because of their “training program”. It’s been a world I have been able to learn and study from that I never would have had access to if they decided to be human and resolve things with me, instead of fighting me. They have now become predictable to me, and that is glorious.

I am not the same person I was 5.5 years ago. My emotional regulation skills are now at such a higher level. I have been able to sharpen my skills with all the experience. What they thought would break me, has actually built me. Now I’ll send flowers.

There are parents that are crossing their fingers that the lawyers just keep pissing me off, waiting for more content. More fence testing opportunities.

The birth of this website was at a time when I was pushed to my limits. Each time I think I reach a limit, I find out…actually, I can keep going. And I am growing, and still growing. When all of this started I was an emotional mess. I look back at emails from the beginning, and oh my word. I wonder who is this person who wrote this ridiculousness. Work. Rest. Grow. Repeat.

This website is because I want parents to benefit from everything that I have gone through. I want to give people as much information as possible. I don’t want any parent to feel that lost or desperate for information, not even for 5 min.

This website has grown into quite the beast. I started out having zero people reading my website with a handful of people reading my blogs. But over the years it has been growing. The stats on this website still shock me…and make me giggle. (hee, hee)

My blogs get posted, and depending on the topic, can reach around 1,500 page views of that blog in just 24 hours and the numbers just climb over the next few days. Even on days of no blogging, my stats are high. Over the last 4 years, they are consistently climbing, with almost 100,000 page views. Almost 20,000 thousand people have been accessing this site.

It’s not just parent(s)/guardians contacting me for help. It’s employees, parents advocating in healthcare and community services, and high school STUDENTS asking for help.

So, let me state the obvious. To the school districts and the 4 most commonly used law firms representing the school districts….when you piss off mama bears, and poke them and fight them, these mama bears go searching, and when they do go searching, they find this website and they will find their community. I already know there are parents out there quoting my website content. Save yourselves and your district a lot of taxpayer’s money and stress, and try working with people and not against them. eh?

I had a reporter from CBC in Ontario contact me and she said I am the only parent that she can find in Canada with a website about this kind of education information. I was like…that can’t be true, seriously? And she said yup, the only parent I can find. The sheer volume of blogs I have written creates a lot of search terms that make it easier for people to find me. I don’t know how the algorithms work but there are a TON of people finding me just off of Google searches. I have people all over Canada contacting me.

For parents who want to blog and start sharing their own experiences, whether it be about the medical field or education, any tips and tricks that you learn navigating the system, there is a very good chance you will have an audience who will benefit. I can’t tell you the number of people who have reached out to me and thanked me for my website.

For the people who are interested in elevating their advocacy to a wider audience…

You can do this too! I really encourage people in other provinces to start this kind of information that is specific to your own provincial systems. We are all dealing with similar things and have similar complaint avenues, but they aren’t exactly the same. In Ontario, the Teacher’s College actually gives parents the teacher’s submissions and they have a specific department for the human rights tribunal for education matters.

Websites can cost a couple hundred a year to maintain. You can create them through WordPress. I had zero training and just figured things out as I went along. You can YouTube on how to create websites. Speaking Up BC is certainly not a fancy design. It’s literally just a template on WordPress.

If you start up a website, send me your link. I’ll start up a parent website page with everyone’s site. We can be like a big spiderweb and all link together.

I just caution people to be very thoughtful about what they put on their website and to not name anyone, and to be aware of defamation. Know the difference between allegations (accusations before proven in court/tribunal) vs. facts proven in court/tribunal. But all of those things that you learn along the way, that lived experience. That is gold! Capture that!

You can also start up a YouTube channel for free! Social media pages! Facebook pages/groups!

I have found in the last 5.5 years I have bounced all over the place in terms of my emotions, from times of forgiveness and healing, to dipping back into anger and sheer disappointment in the system and with the people who are choosing to follow along and treat parents in this way.

I remember when I first started the human rights tribunal process their response to the complaint had me running on anger. I was determined to do a hearing but also wondered how I was going to have it in me to pull that off. The good thing about the tribunal process is that it takes years to get to a hearing. You won’t be the same person in those years. You will have opportunities to sharpen your skills. To grow and learn. Not only mentally with learning things but emotionally as a person.

During my process, there have been times when I have benefited from reaching out to counselling services to help emotionally manage everything. Rhodes College has students from their counselling program that you can access Affordable Counselling which was around $25 per hour or even less, when I accessed it years ago.

I now work in a profession where I navigate the human rights tribunal as my career and help people with their human rights issues, full-time. I love it!

I think a big part of my success in navigating these systems has been because I am completely willing to fall flat on my face and push into unknown territory. I just don’t care if I fail. There are always gems of goodness in “failure”. Is it ever really a failure? It’s just a step really. Part of the process of getting really good at something.

So, you know what? Go ahead…piss me off. Good luck with that.

It’s all just gas in my gas tank.

This website will be available forever. I even joked with my husband that I want it put in my will that our children are required to pay for the domain name to keep this going. HA!

One thing I learned through this process is to trust myself. I have more in me than I even realized. I can do hard things. I can learn. I can grow.

I am not the only one.

School districts and their lawyers will always underestimate parent(s)/guardians. We don’t need to underestimate ourselves.

There are lots of us who are navigating these systems and they are turning into fine-tuned advocacy machines. Some are writing books, starting businesses, starting non-profit organizations (BCEdAccess, Dyslexia BC, InspireFASD, ADHD Society) leading DPACs, advocating in the media, and making career changes to enter the education system.

So, you know what? Go ahead… piss us off! Good luck with that.

Settlement & Mediation Information

Here is some settlement and mediation information.

Fact Sheet from the BC Human Rights Clinic on settlement and mediation

https://bchrc.net/…/FACT-SHEET-Mediations-and…

Guide to Settlement Meetings from the BC HRT (BC Human Rights Tribunal)

https://www.bchrt.bc.ca/law…/guides/settlement-meeting

How to Prepare for Settlement Talks

https://www.bchrt.bc.ca/…/prepare-for-settlement-talks

Mediation policy and mediation process from the BC HRT https://www.bchrt.bc.ca/law-library/policies/mediation/

If there is no settlement resolution, the respondents may decide to file a dismissal application if they feel they have made you a reasonable offer. https://www.bchrt.bc.ca/law…/guides/dismissal-apps/da-7/

Settlement amounts have been noted by the BC HRT in decisions that settlement amounts are increasing. Just because they may apply, doesn’t automatically mean they will be able to force you to accept the amount. Their offer needs to be in the reasonable range of what the tribunal would award you. See this case below.

Bahrami Ghahnavieh v. SolidCAD, A Cansel Company, 2024 BCHRT 226

https://www.canlii.org/…/2024bchrt226/2024bchrt226.html

[33] However, I accept that the trend in Tribunal awards for injury to dignity is upwards…

[38] In the circumstances of the complaint, I find that SolidCAD’s offer of $4000 to Ms. Bahrami Ghahnavieh for injury to dignity is not within the reasonable range of what the Tribunal might order if Ms. Bahrami Ghahnavieh is successful at the hearing on merits. For these reasons, I deny SolidCAD’s application to dismiss the complaint.

The only person that can give you an idea of what would be reasonable based on the context of your complaint would be a lawyer.

But still, like air, I’ll rise…

History is full of challenges and unfairness. It is also full of legends, advocates, activists, heroes, and system disruptors. Relentless fighters for the good.

Let us start off this week by soaking in the words of the poem I Rise by Maya Angelou. This is a video that I have watched many many times.

With so much happening right now, we need each other now even more. We need community. We need collaboration. We need friends. We need support. And so, like air, I’ll rise. We’ll rise.

I Rise

You may write me down in history
With your bitter, twisted lies,
You may tread me in the very dirt
But still, like dust, I’ll rise.

Does my sassiness upset you?
Why are you beset with gloom?
‘Cause I walk like I’ve got oil wells
Pumping in my living room.

Just like moons and like suns,
With the certainty of tides,
Just like hopes springing high,
Still I’ll rise.

Did you want to see me broken?
Bowed head and lowered eyes?
Shoulders falling down like teardrops.
Weakened by my soulful cries.

Does my haughtiness offend you?
Don’t you take it awful hard
‘Cause I laugh like I’ve got gold mines
Diggin’ in my own back yard.

You may shoot me with your words,
You may cut me with your eyes,
You may kill me with your hatefulness,
But still, like air, I’ll rise.

Does my sexiness upset you?
Does it come as a surprise
That I dance like I’ve got diamonds
At the meeting of my thighs?

Out of the huts of history’s shame
I rise
Up from a past that’s rooted in pain
I rise
I’m a black ocean, leaping and wide,
Welling and swelling I bear in the tide.
Leaving behind nights of terror and fear
I rise
Into a daybreak that’s wondrously clear
I rise
Bringing the gifts that my ancestors gave,
I am the dream and the hope of the slave.
I rise
I rise
I rise.

Mayo Angelou

Conscious Systemic Neglect

Many individuals and organizations are reading yet another comprehensive report published by the Office of Representation of Children and Youth, released today January 29th, 2025 at 11 am. In fact, as noted in this report, they have written 18 of these reports in the last 20 years (p. 15).

I have a deep appreciation for the people involved in creating these reports, as they document the underfunded systemic neglect.  

We have so much evidence. Lack of awareness is not the issue.

This report outlines the consequences that people are experiencing by such an underfunded poorly designed system. Society should be shocked and appalled by this report. This system punishes people for being disabled. 

I am struggling to understand why designing a system that harms families and sets them up for failure and financial ruin benefits society as a whole. The system creates years of chronic stress and is traumatizing. Legislating families into poverty and underfunding these systems is a pay now or pay later system. With high costs in other expensive reactive systems (health care, courts) and high human costs. People are sucked into the whirlpool and cannot get out.

“38 percent of caregivers report
needing mental health supports
for themselves and/or members
of their caregiving circle (e.g.,
relatives, siblings, and others living
in the home)” (p. 35)

“79 percent of caregivers reported
they either had to leave their job
or reduce their hours of work
to care for their child with a
disability, or they had to increase
their employment to pay for
the services their child needs,
pushing families into poverty and
impacting caregivers’ future career
development, mental health, and
well-being” (p.35)

Families need systems in place so they can continue to work and provide for their family and other siblings and not be depleted and drained by the system. The emotional strain families are experiencing while navigating and trying to survive through these human-made systems is unnecessary. These systems can change. Designing and maintaining a system that creates the outcomes outlined in this report is not logical, humane, or fair. It is ableist, discriminatory, and oppressive. 

There are so many quotable statements in this report. It is clear that there have been years of inaction. 

“In fact, a four-year review by RCY on the progress
of the Alone and Afraid recommendations, released
in 2024, found little movement by government, with
actions on some of the recommendations even
deteriorating over time.” (p. 16)

The time is NOW to start somewhere.

Thank you RCD, yet again for excellent work in this area. This is advocacy! Shining a light on those pushed into the dark.

Don’t Look Away: Issues Spotlight
Too Many Left Behind: Ensuring Children and Youth with Disabilities Thrive https://rcybc.ca/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/CYD_Final_Jan29.pdf
January 29th, 2025
Written by the Office of Representative for Children and Youth

Exclusion and the Bumpy Conversations Ahead

If this blog were a construction road sign it would say “tough but necessary conversations ahead”.

Exclusion has been brought into the front and centre of society. The media coverage has been wonderful. Thank you so much for all of the brave families who have come forward and shared their stories. We need it. A big thank you to all of the families sharing their stories with Ombudsperson. A necessary and important step in the process.

There are uncomfortable conversations that lie ahead when figuring out how to evolve the education system. We have mixed success.

There will always be that one person, or multiple people, who stands up and says something that makes our hearts sink. When you think of it, this is actually what we fought for. Embrace it. It’s going to get dirty and messy and uncomfortable, but all of this is extremely necessary in order to get where we want to get. Equity. We all need to talk about disability. The tough conversations need to happen and we need to grow as a society. Ableist beliefs are going to surface. It’s not going to be pretty.

Currently, the buzz and rumblings in the education profession is that segregation is a topic that people want to talk about. They question inclusion. They don’t think it’s really working, and we need to re-think separate classrooms. This is actually not anything new. It’s been a conversation that has been happening for a while, it’s never really left us, only whispered in the background. No one was saying it out loud, only now they are. I can understand why those working in the system doubt inclusion because, let’s be honest, our system is failing, for many people, for a very long list of reasons. They witness this failing every single day. Some people are experiencing great success. I wish we heard more of those stories. But many people are struggling immensely and experiencing great harm. Hence the exclusion investigation.

These types of hard conversations are inevitable. Human systems, specifically social issues, swing like pendulums all the time. Conservatives to Liberals back to Conservatives to back to Liberals. Human rights will increase, decrease, increase, decrease. You get the picture. Every country/society experiences the pendulum swing. It is continuous and it will never stop. Some are moving at a faster or slower rate than others. But we all swing. Humanity never stands still. We are always moving. What is that line about change? The only constant is change…something like that.

Stopping the swing would be like standing in front of Niagra Falls with a teacup, trying to stop the water from flowing. BUT, we do get a say and can advocate for how far we swing, and what it’s going to look like when that swing lands.

Re-making very old traditional systems to bend like blades of grass is going to be work. Not going to lie, this is going to require a SHIT SHIT SHIT ton of self-care, community care, and emotional regulation on our part. But it needs to happen. We need the hard parts to happen in order to arrive at where we want to arrive because it is going to take all of us. It needs to be a community effort. Sometimes things need to get really messy before they get better.

We do not want to go backwards in time. We want to move forward.

There is a group theorist who views teams that go through cycles like this, which came from my early university classes over 20 years ago. This visual has never left my mind, though his name has and I have been trying to find it with no success.

The group theory is that we all process change as a society like this.

Teams develop moving up and advancing but we cycle back and hit topics again and again but never in the same way. Never in the same spot.

This is 2025, not the 1980’s. Where would you place inclusive education on the line?

If people think that inclusion isn’t for all kids and some kids benefit from alternative learning spaces and this concept should be expanded to manage exclusion, then what forward-thinking or inclusion-thinking design are we going to create?

Because….

And yes, this is for all of you in the back.

We do not want to go back in time.

Segregated classrooms were accused of literally warehousing people. Making sure students were physically alive at the end of the day. Schools are not mini prisons. Or at least they shouldn’t be. In fairness, EA’s who currently work in the system, have said that even with “inclusion” they still feel like they are babysitting and the students they are supporting aren’t learning anything without explicit pull-out instruction. In the study done by Fraser and Shields (2010) they report that students mainstreamed in classrooms have been “treated as ghosts (virtually ignored), guests (respected but not integrated) or pets (cosseted and pampered) (p. 10).

In 2025, what COULD inclusive education evolve to look like?

Separate classrooms do bring up knee-jerk reaction fear in me. I wonder if people will use this as a loophole to not try as hard. To not invest in professional development. Will we go back to specialist teachers and not insist on disability education for all new and incoming teachers? Some communities need specialist teachers. The Deaf community is an excellent example. If Deaf schools didn’t exist they would lose their language and culture. We can never let that happen. Dyslexic advocates have been screaming for pull-out education time for remediation. It’s never all or nothing for everyone.

Everything in life is on a spectrum. Everything. Sexuality, personality traits, mental health, gender, humour, height, weight, cognition processing, neurodivergent thinking, disability, etc, etc, etc, We are all a natural part of human variation. No one is a mistake. You just literally need to find yourself where you fit on the multiple spectrums that all combined to make up who you are, and I guarantee you, there is a group of really cool people waiting for you.

We cannot have a system that is binary in thinking and design. It’s either this or that.

Humanity doesn’t work like that. We don’t. It’s very interesting to me that we are a species that cannot be compartmentalized and yet this is how our brain works. We need to compartmentalize everything in order to mentally understand things. How ironic is that? Our brains are wired to root for the underdog and absolutely need fairness, yet life is never fair. It leaves us in a constant state of continuous dissatisfaction that propels us forward to have our needs met. 

Having systems that force people into binary groups, will not work.

So here come some really bumpy conversations.

If you are reading this blog and you are not a part of the disability community and think you are immune to the discussion of accessibility, oh phew this topic doesn’t impact me, I can promise you, that you are not.

The reality is, that you and your children are one car accident or one medical emergency away from needing an accessible inclusive equitable society.

So, let’s get cracking folks!

Fraser, F.G., & Shields, C.M (2010). Leader’s roles in disrupting dominant discourses and promoting inclusion. In. A.L. Edmunds & R. B Macmillian (Eds.). Leadership for inclusion: A practical guide (pp.7-18) Rotterdame: Sense Publishers.

What is the Human Rights Tribunal Take on Exclusion?

The timing of this decision was spot on.

This decision was released January 13th and the Ombudsperson announcement was the day after on January 14th.

Student Y by Grandparent S v. Board of Education of School District No. X, 2024 BCHRT 353

I have added this case to my list under the human rights cases tab. I have picked out some paragraphs, but I really encourage you all to read the full case to get the context of what happened to this child and family. The respondents applied for a dismissal and the human rights tribunal decided the complaint should continue.

School Exclusion

There are a few paragraphs in this decision that got my noodle thinking, but for this blog, I want to focus on this paragraph below. Paragraph #52.

[52] From the materials before me, I am satisfied that the School District was actively and intensively involved in attempting to accommodate Student Y’s disabilities from the time that Student Y was in grade one up until the time that she was excluded from school in grade three. However, the question before me on this application is whether the School District is reasonably certain to prove that it “could not have done anything else reasonable or practical to avoid the negative impact on the individual”: Moore at para. 49 [Emphasis mine]. In my view, there is a lack of information in the materials before me that would allow me to conclude that the School District is reasonably certain to do so.

The author of this decision decided to emphasize the words anything else. It wasn’t me that bolded that in the paragraph.

So, this is my guess.

When the human rights tribunal emphasizes ANYTHING ELSE are they eluding to an alternative learning space?

A lot of districts have alternative learning programs for students who need alternative learning spaces. There has been a recent uproar over the closing of a learning centre in the Surrey district with parents and students very upset over its closing with media coverage and rallies. The school districts report funding issues. There was also another family who was in the media, and their son was in a life skills program, and he was excluded due to lack of resources. Without systemic financial planning from the Ministry of Education to keep these alternative programs running, they end up closing and students are still being excluded.

In the face of complete exclusion for some students from schools, will school districts be required to provide alternative learning spaces as their ANYTHING ELSE or face human rights complaints? The school districts already have the power to choose the education program for the student and choose classroom placement. This is from the Supreme Court decision Eaton v. Brant County Board of Education, 1997 CanLII 366 (SCC), [1997] 1 SCR 241 (Notable paragraphs are: 76, 77, 78, 79, 80, 81)

What does the tribunal mean by ANYTHING ELSE? They have already acknowledged the school district was “actively and intensively involved in attempting to accommodate Student Y’s disability”.

We are at the brink of having Ombudsperson and possibly the Human Rights Tribunal (if this case goes to a hearing), set forth some expectations around the topic of exclusion.

After you read this case, what is your guess? What do you think anything else means?

Very interesting times ahead. Very!

Here is a case of exclusion from Ontario.

This case led to the Duty to Facilitate.
https://www.speakingupbc.com/duty-to-facilitate-responsibility-of-the-parents-guardians/

What can we Expect from the Ombudsperson BC Investigation?

To answer that question, we need to look at their role and how they have approached educational matters in the past.

If you are a parent who has received a decision letter, you will have it explained in that decision these statements:

“The role of our office is to impartially assess complaints of administrative unfairness brought against public agencies under our jurisdiction. Our assessment process examines whether the agency’s actions appear consistent with the applicable legislation, the agency’s relevant policy guidelines, and the broader principles of administrative unfairness.”

“My focus is assessing your complaint was on whether the District appears to have followed a reasonable process…”

“While I understand you think the District made the wrong decision, disagreement with a decision does not mean the decision is unreasonable.”

When we look at their previous decisions around education, again they don’t look at whether the decision itself is reasonable but the process.

As you can see here in this case (School’s Out) they focused on not whether the school made the right decision in doing what they did, but that they didn’t inform the parents there is an appeals process. Again, focusing on administrative process. To read more decisions in education you can see them here.

We can also look to their Fair Schools Report from 1995, on how they examine the process of what Fair Schools should look like.

Will they create a similar document, but around exclusion?

Will school districts around the province be told they need to create exclusion policies?

Currently, the administrative process around exclusion is a mess. Ombudsperson will be engaging in a year-long investigation into the “fairness around exclusion”.

Law often takes the best interest of the child approach. From an administrative fairness perspective, what should the legislation, policy or administrative process be for children dealing with exclusion and what is fair?

Ombudsperson BC focuses on this perspective in their announcement stating “Children have limited options to address unfairness in their education and school environments.”

From the child’s point of view, what is fair to them?

This still leaves parents out of the picture. Parents are struggling to work and pay their bills while their children are not allowed to attend school, even if the temporary exclusion is considered to be in the best interest of the child by the school. The School Act gives school districts the final decision around exclusion. Is this where family status complaints with the BC Human Rights Tribunal could fill in the gap?

Ombudsperson will not be examining whether exclusion is newly discriminatory. Each complaint system is a silo with their own legislation that guides them. They are not connected to the Human Rights Code.

Green silo - Teachers Regulation Branch - Educator Stand Teachers Act. Orange silo- Human Rights Tribunal - BC Human Rights Act. Blue silo - OIPC - FIPPA, PIPPA (Privacy Acts). Yellow silo - Ombudsperson BC, Ombudsperson Act. Purple silo-Whistle blower Section, Section 11 Appeal, WB Policy School Act

Something important to highlight from the Ombudsperson Act S.23 outlines what could happen after the investigation is complete.

Procedure after investigation

23   (1)If, after completing an investigation, the Ombudsperson is of the opinion that
(a)a decision, recommendation, act or omission that was the subject matter of the investigation was
(i)contrary to law,
(ii)unjust, oppressive or improperly discriminatory,
(iii)made, done or omitted under a statutory provision or other rule of law or practice that is unjust, oppressive or improperly discriminatory,
(iv)based wholly or partly on a mistake of law or fact or on irrelevant grounds or consideration,
(v)related to the application of arbitrary, unreasonable or unfair procedures, or
(vi)otherwise wrong,
(b)in doing or omitting an act or in making or acting on a decision or recommendation, an authority
(i)did so for an improper purpose,
(ii)failed to give adequate and appropriate reasons in relation to the nature of the matter, or
(iii)was negligent or acted improperly, or
(c)there was unreasonable delay in dealing with the subject matter of the investigation,

the Ombudsperson must report that opinion and the reasons for it to the authority and may make the recommendation the Ombudsperson considers appropriate.

(2)Without restricting subsection (1), the Ombudsperson may recommend that
(a)a matter be referred to the appropriate authority for further consideration,
(b)an act be remedied,
(c)an omission or delay be rectified,
(d)a decision or recommendation be cancelled or changed,
(e)reasons be given,
(f)a practice, procedure or course of conduct be altered,
(g)an enactment or other rule of law be reconsidered, or
(h)any other steps be taken.

They make recommendations. They can’t force the Ministry of Education and Child Care to do anything. BUT! It would make the Ministry look horrible if they ignored the Ombudsperson BC. AND, given that there has been so much media attention (which is absolutely wonderful), then hopefully the Ministry will be accepting of their recommendation.

All this to say…the analysis by the Ombudsperson BC is going to be VERY interesting. The public report will raise awareness of this issue in a way that we have never seen before. The media has been very interested in covering this topic, which is fabulous. We need to muddle through this topic and see where we land. The points of impact on this topic touch everyone and multiple groups of people who access and work in education. I am very pleased that Ombudsperson is shining a light on this issue, and will be looking at exclusion. It will be very interesting to see the results of their analysis and recommendations for “fairness”.

When it comes to exclusion, what is “fair?”

Ombudsperson states:

“By examining this issue we can make recommendations to support the ministry and school districts in meeting their inclusive education commitments and obligations to all students.”

It will take them a year to investigate.

I will be on the edge of my seat waiting for this to come out!

Human Rights and Public Attention

The Burnaby Now has recently posted articles about human rights complaints that are connected to Burnaby.

I am curious to know how the people who filed these complaints feel about that.

Do they like their story being shared? Do they feel that these articles are elevating their advocacy? Or do they wish Burnaby Now never wrote them?

Having courts and tribunal systems be open and transparent to the public is an important feature of our justice system. Court is always open. As a member of the public you can just walk in and watch everything unfold. In special circumstances, lawyers can argue to have a closed courtroom. Having an open court system is a way for us to learn about how our justice system works and how decisions are made. It boosts public confidence and supports the legitimacy of the system.

If you are a parent filing a complaint on behalf of your child, your name, your child’s name and the school district’s name will be anonymized. If you want to name yourself, or the school district you will need to make an application. One parent did just that and won. You can also apply to have just your school districts named. You can file an anonymization application as soon as your complaint is accepted.

However, if you are a parent filing a family status complaint they may anonymize your name if information about your child is disclosed, or they may not. There is a risk of this hitting the local newspaper. For some people, that would thrill them and the attention they have been wanting. Other people, may feel that their information being shared is a violation. One parent advocated for a consent resolution so that the details of what happened were posted publicly after a settlement. Bravo! That was a genius idea.

Dismissal decisions are not the only decisions being shared. Anything that would benefit the public to be aware of or that advances the Code gets posted. That is timeliness, complaint amendments, improper conduct applications, etc. Not all decisions get posted. Many of them do not. You will not know in advance if the decision is going to get posted or not until the day they tell you it will be posted the next day. You’ll get the decision in the morning and then shortly after it will be on their website.

If anonymization is important to you, this is a conversation I would suggest you have with your case manager. The sooner the better.

Also, know that having a closed hearing is also something you can apply for. Otherwise, your hearing will be posted on their public hearing list, and members of the public can sign up and listen in. This is how people learn about the process and prepare for their own cases.

Most parents I have talked to would love to broadcast their case to as many people as possible. They have reached the point where they want to scream from the tallest mountain. They want everyone to know what happened. But, if this isn’t the case for you, the public attention that could come from a human rights complaint may be something that you consider and discuss with your case manager as soon as your complaint gets accepted.

Meaningful Consultation

How do we define that?

Meaningful consultation is part of the duty to accommodate. The school districts have a duty-to-consult and it needs to be “meaningful consultation”

Here is the human rights tribunal decision that outlines the district’s duty to consult.

Duty to consult

BC CAISE (BC Council of Administrators in Inclusive Education) in their “A Guide to Meaningful Consultation” manual on page 8 defines it as:

“Meaningful consultation is an ongoing, collaborative effort involving students, families/caregivers, and educational staff, focused on open dialogue and joint decision-making for educational matters. This inclusive process works towards ensuring all voices are heard and decisions are well-informed and clearly communicated. All parties work together towards a balanced outcome, emphasizing recurring dialogue rather than consultation being a single event.”

“When done well, meaningful consultation ensures families/caregivers feel that the school team listens to them and that their experience, knowledge and ideas have been considered.”

“Meaningful consultation encourages open dialogue; it does not mean all parties will agree.”

“When a mutual agreement is not possible, the school team will provide a rationale for their decision-making with regard to the educational programming of the child and ensure ongoing consultation and follow-up.”

Here is the manual https://bccaise.org/…/BCCAISE-Meaningful-Consultation…

If this rationale is not being provided and they refuse to provide it when you ask, you can use this manual and file an Ombudsperson complaint.

I also want to acknowledge that the consultation process can trigger a lot of emotions in us. In order to keep advocating and keep the dialogue going, there are certain rules we parents need to know to navigate this system.

Blog: 5 Rules on How to be Untouchable

https://www.speakingupbc.com/…/5-rules-on-how-to-be…

Families are Advocating – A Year in Review for Human Rights, OIPC Decisions, and the Media!

It’s been quite a year for tribunal decisions. An explosion of decisions that have advanced the human rights code that I haven’t seen occur in a VERY long time. I hope the school districts are paying attention. They need to stop underestimating people. Families are advocating!

Human Rights Decisions

In the last 365 days we have had the following cases.

Student (by Parent) v. School District, 2023 BCHRT 237 – December 19th, 2023
Key Point Summary Link

This case spread across Canada in over 60 different media outlets into large cities and small towns. Even internationally. Media list blog. Who would have ever predicted that would happen!?!

This case was a partial win by a self-represented parent. There are many key highlights of this case that advance the human rights code. It writes that you don’t need an IEP to be protected under the code, self-advocacy expectations are defined, and the most beautiful part is MEANINGFUL INQUIRY. Anxiety gets pushed under the rug as no big deal in schools. This case elevates the attention and seriousness of how anxiety impacts a student. It also brings up the topic of communicating a diagnosis between staff. It also highlights hindsight and how important it is for parents to be communicating to the school what they are seeing at home.

X by Y v. Board of Education of School District No. Z, 2024 BCHRT 72 – March 8, 2024
Key Points – Summary Link

This case was also by a self-represented parent. It wasn’t a personal win for her, but due to her absolute persistence in completing this case AND waiting 15 months for the decision! It did advance the human rights code and the community as a whole has benefited. The jewel out of this case is that education staff are not allowed to give up. They have to continually keep trying by evaluating and adapting their methods. You would think that parents actually don’t need this in writing, but we do.

The Parent v The School District, 2024 BCHRT 113 – April 2024
Key Point Summary Link

This case was again also by a self-represented parent. It confirms that the human rights tribunal will accept family status complaints from parents in connection to the discrimination or harm that their child experiences in an educational setting. This also links to another family status case that occurred at the BC Supreme Court level that confirmed that the tribunal has the authority to accept family status and education as a valid complaint. A public-facing decision, a turning point for parents with disabilities in education.

Child K (by Ehmke) and another v. Queen of All Saints School and another – May 16th, 2024
Key Point Summary Link

This case confirms that the tribunal is willing to name school districts in human rights complaints. FABULOUS. This case also is clear as a bell in saying to education defence lawyers that using TRB complaints will not be accepted for dismissal reasons. So, parents don’t have to fear that filing TRB complaints will compromise their human rights complaint. If anything, I think they help, as a way to gather evidence that the education staff submit. It’s a gold mine of documents that we can access that we would never even know existed.

SUMMARY: Human Rights Cases are very important advocacy tools to use when communicating with your child’s schools. It is very likely that the staff don’t even know what their legal human rights responsibilities are. These cases need to be APPLIED. Then when we all do this, we move the needle.

OIPC Decisions

We also can’t forget the OIPC decisions that occurred in the past year.

Way to go! Two of them were by parent(s)/guardians!

F24-30 April 15th, 2024 – School District Coquitlam
-Section 14 – lawyer-client privilege

F24-09, February 7th 2024 – School District Coquitlam
– Section 13, Section 22

To read the other previous cases in previous years also by parents, here is the list.

Ombudsperson BC

This case came out this year about there not being an appeal avenue for a section 177. That is huge. Parents who receive these can now ask for what the appeal avenue is and if school districts don’t automatically tell them, then they are not following the recommendations and standard from Ombudsperson BC.

https://bcombudsperson.ca/case_summary/schools-out

Media Articles

We also want to look back and appreciate the media articles that were spearheaded by parents. They brought their issues to the attention of the public via the media. That isn’t easy. Way to go! If parent(s)/guardians aren’t brave enough to do this, the public will assume everything is okay-dookie. We thank you!

August 9th, 2024 – The School System has Failed my Kids – Surrey Mom Speaks out

March 30th, 2024 – Vancouver schools lag on playground accessibility, parents say

March 11th, 2024 – Parents demand fix for staffing shortfall at Vancouver school

March 9th, 2024 – Parents voice concerns over ‘crisis-level’ staffing shortages at Vancouver school

March 8th, 2024 – Parent says school district’s decision comes as a huge relief to parents and students 

Social movements are slow.
And this is what advocacy for disability rights is.
A social movement.
It will always be too slow for anyone’s liking.
Really.
While we wait for change, harm is being done.

Some people feel defeated and think what is the point,
the system isn’t changing.

Change very rarely occurs in leaps and bounds.
Certainly not in human systems.
It’s normal for it to be
2 steps forward,
1 step back,
3 steps forward,
1 step back,

It’s always messy.
Never a straight line from A to B.
More like a zig-zag all over the place.
But this is how humans work.
Especially in large groups.
Societies.
No way to get around that.
Just need to muddle through it.

But we are seeing more advocacy tools pop up.
Decisions and accessibility legislation.
Families are advocating.
More external watch bodies are taking notice.
Change is slow.
But it is occurring.
The roots are growing.

What is scary and dangerous is when the system feels no one is watching.
That they are untouchable.
Then the system will change in leaps and bounds.
It can always get worse.

We need to hold the line.
Send the message that we are here.
We are watching.
We are learning.
We will take action.
And clearly, we have.

Let us focus on this:
Many seeds have been planted this year.
May they take root and grow

To my community of families,
Happy Holidays, and I wish you all the best for 2025.