Today is quite the day.
Due to parents filing external complaints to the Ombudsperson BC department, they have decided to launch an investigation to see if these exclusions are fair.
Today makes me think of Judith.
Judith Heumann, the late disability activist has said “Change never happens at the pace we think it should. It happens over years of people joining together, strategizing, sharing and pulling all the levers they possibly can. Gradually, excruciating slowly, things start to happen, and then suddenly, seemingly out of the blue, something will tip.”
Today it tipped.
THIS is why filing external complaints is so important.
We are all grains of sand that make up a beach. Every complaint matters. It becomes data. Change will never happen if we just suck it up, swallow the circumstances that we are in, and never speak up.
We can never SHUT UP! EVER!
File
File
File
Our lived experience needs to spread far and wide.
Everything we do matters. All of it. Nothing is ever wasted. It builds over time. We will never truly know the full extent of the impact that we have on people and how think and may see things differently. We need to keep going.
To all of the parents who have filed over this topic in the past YEARS, you have all been building blocks to make this happen. ALL of you.
Take a breath.
Sleep well.
You did good.
Here is the announcement
https://bcombudsperson.ca/news_release/ombudsperson-investigating-exclusion-of-students-from-bc-public-schools/
Here is the questionnaire
https://bcombudsperson.ca/school-exclusion