It worries and saddens me greatly to wake up this morning and read this story of a teenage girl with epilepsy who was (allegedly) treated in an abysmal and discriminatory manner by her school.
And with BC just 18 months away from entering our public school system, I really, really don’t want to be reading these statistics:
recent figures obtained under freedom of information show that disability discrimination claims against the [Victorian] Department of Education have more than tripled, from six in 1999 to 19 in 2008.
I suppose I just have to HOPE that the increased number of claims is not actually a case of increased discrimination, but increased awareness of student rights and families feeling more empowered to take action. I really do hope that’s the case. I definitely applaud families for taking a stand against discriminatory treatment, but it makes me so sad that there would ever be such a need for them to do so. The education system should not let ANY child down in such a terrible way.
And speaking of being let down, the headline for this article leaves me rather cold too. How about “Teacher ‘kicked ball at student with epilepsy’. ” (rather than “Teacher ‘kicked ball at epileptic’.”). I think editors of this newspaper could do with a little education in ‘People First’ language. I feel another letter coming on…
Di, looking forward to hearing your letter. Unfortunately it is out there for sure, in our meeting last week we had a family that had been “unwelcomed” at a few schools in the (ahem) Kingston municipality.
bron
Di – that story is awful. I can’t believe teachers could be that ignorant for a start, but for any teacher to bad mouth ANY student in front of their peers is just not on!
I know more then a few disabled friends, who are now home schooled because of school neglect and poor action… You may have a hard road ahead… Stay on top if it! And know YOUR rights…