Tag: #Advocacy

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School Protection Program – School Districts – Lawyers: The Three Musketeers

It is a story as old as time. 

Power. Control. Money. 

How do you dominate and suppress a large number of people? How do you force them through a maze that they are going to fight every step of the way? 

This story has actually already occurred in history before. People with disabilities were institutionalized. The goal was to move everyone into the community. However, the dream never came to fruition. It fell apart due to the support in the community never being developed. The training wasn’t there. The funding wasn’t provided. The attitudinal shift required from society never blossomed. People were moved from institutions to filling up prisons, surviving the streets, and families were left navigating and policed through scarce, tightly controlled community systems that have never been enough. 

In education, disabled children previously were automatically separated in segregated classrooms and segregated schools. Inclusion became the dream, and disabled students were all moved into mainstream classrooms. But the training wasn’t there. Funding wasn’t provided. The attitudinal shift required from society never blossomed. Children started filling up online distant learning programs, escaped to independent schools, and families were left navigating and policed through scarce, tightly controlled public schools that have never been enough. 

How do you control the masses of parents of disabled children trying to advocate for equitable access to education when the maze they are navigating isn’t currently designed for that?

It turns out. 

Through insurance, risk management and litigation oppression. 

All behind closed doors. 

I am going to start right at the top. 

The School Protection Program (SPP) is an insurance company. All school districts take taxpayers’ money and pool it together for insurance for all the districts. As explained in a BC Human Rights Tribunal (BC HRT) decision Chilliwack Teachers’ Association v. Neufeld (No.9), 2025 BCHRT 310  “The School Protection Program [SPP] is an insurance program that provides school districts protection against liability imposed by law for damages to third parties, and all costs and expenses incurred in defense of such claims.” (para 2). According to the SPP’s administrator handbook this includes human rights complaints (page11). 

The insurance company pays the bills and can withdraw paying the legal fees from representing law firms when it’s not in their financial interest to continue. (1) They also will approve long fights when the big picture is justified. We all know how insurance companies work. It’s about money. Rejecting people to see if they appeal and fight back. Then give in. How many documentaries and news reports have we seen on this? Lots. Soulless entities. Parents are instructed by mediators in mediation meetings at the BC HRT that lawyers are making their settlement offers based on a cost-risk analysis. 

The person who is waiting to receive compensation or accommodation supports at school is a disabled child. Not the parent. No one is going shoe shopping after this.

Let’s back track a bit. Before we even get to a mediation meeting. The cost-risk analysis is being done in the school district by administrators. They size up the parent. Take their education into consideration. Analyze their emotional capacity. Try to figure out their resources. They see how willing you are to please. How do you respond to authority? Marginalized parents and disabled parents are impacted the hardest. Polite racism and ableism form ability conclusions and risk assessments. They fit all parents through the maze in school meetings and emails. Will whip you back into your place during phone calls, and seemingly casual but potent last-minute conversations at drop-off and pick-up. They correct your behaviour, and remind you where you stand. They have the real power here, and they know it. Backed up by the School Act. For fear of retaliation and our children being unwanted, we fall in line. 

Then harm has occurred. Sometimes slowly building over time or a serious event. Regardless, you have been pushed past your limit.  You file a human rights complaint. You are entering an adversarial legal process. Another system that is underfunded and over capacity, and so will last years. 

It comes down to money. 

Is it cheaper for them to accommodate your child or to litigate? Do they think you have what it takes to make litigation more expensive than accommodating your child?

It’s an insurance payout decision. 

The parents who have the capacity, the resources and the knowledge of how this system works are able to leverage it. They use the legal language in emails necessary and mark their territory. They are potentially expensive. The school district is more interested in providing. They know what they may have to justify to the tribunal if this doesn’t go well. For those that don’t, everyone else will be squeezed through the maze until they just can’t take it anymore. Our prisons are filled with kids who have jumped ship. 

People talk about how to fix the education system. There is never one solution. No matter what that person’s idea is, the system is too complex. There are too many layers. There are too many people and stakeholders, and rights holders involved. Too many gears all locked together. 

For this blog, I am focusing on the silent captain of the education system. The insurance company. We want transparency in the decision-making of the money that is spent on litigation matters. 

School districts may have insurance to cover human rights complaints and other litigation, but according to school districts’ annual Statement of Financial Information (SOFI) reports, some districts are spending hundreds of thousands of dollars and even millions on lawyers’ fees. What are they spending this on? Was this money originally intended for our children? Is it now being spent on litigation oppression strategies instead?

In the Surrey School District, a 2014 human rights complaint decision revealed that they were spending money on surveillance for a teacher who was on medical leave for depression and anxiety.

“Ms. Steele says that she believes the Board hired a private surveillance company to monitor her whereabouts and activities on her unpaid days off work during her GRTW. The Board agrees that they did so.” (2)

Is this what they are spending money on in their SOFI reports, or is this also insurance approved? Where is the budget line for surveillance of staff? 

When school districts don’t have to explain what they spend their money on, there is an opportunity for litigation abuse, oppression, power and unethical decision-making. 

Do you know that litigation is designed to be hard? It is to deter people from suing people or filing complaints that aren’t of great importance. Otherwise, it is believed that the floodgates would open and everyone would be filing complaints. Let that sink in. There are so many people with unmet needs, and this is how the system stops them from taking action. How you herd sheep through the maze and keep them quiet. Give them the appearance of a resolution avenue. Make them think it’s their own fault for not using it.

Is this part of the reason why the government isn’t too keen to fully fund the BC HRT? The Chair wrote a personal message on the BC HRT website stating she is leaving her position early out of pure frustration, as reported by The Tyee.  Is this the intent of the government? Trying to widdle everyone out. Only leaving the ones with enough privilege, time, capacity and resources to navigate this other maze. Parents are calculating their own cost-risk analysis too.

Insurance, law firms, senior administrators, hidden budgets, hidden spending, all land on the backs of disabled children. Who have no choice. No say in how this system runs. And when they don’t squeeze themselves hard enough… it’s blamed on them. Their character flaw. Their deficit. 

What. The. Fuck!

We want transparency. Can we start there? Come on, school districts, what on earth are you spending sooooooo much money on? Why are some school districts not spending any money on legal fees? What are you hiding? 

If it is ethical spending that you think the public would understand, then why not explain it as part of your budget? 

When the school district is so underfunded that there isn’t anything left, there should not be a secret hidden part of budget spending that isn’t explained. We don’t need a novel; a summary would be a great start. 

So, parents, when we ask for accommodations, let me start the email for you. 

Dear Insurance Company, 

I hope you are well.

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(1) Chilliwack Teachers’ Association v. Neufeld (No. 8), 2025 BCHRT 64, para 6

(2) Steele v. School District No. 36, 2014 BCHRT 276, para 21

BLOG: Settlements and Legal Fees

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They aren’t breaking you. They are building you.

“When you walk to the edge of all the light you have and take that first step into the darkness of the unknown, you must believe that one of two things will happen:

There will be something solid for you to stand upon, or, you will be taught to fly.” – Patrick Overton

I have a lot of quotes that I love. This one I found in my early twenties. It has stayed with me all these years. I can tell you that as I was approaching my hearing and starting my degree, this is what I kept in mind. I was all eyes and ears for any piece of information that was going to cross my path. I had no idea what I was doing, and I felt completely in the dark.

Life can be pretty incredible sometimes. Unpredictable. For the good, the bad and the ugly.

What can start out as a complete pile of horse shit can become fertilizer. Be what fuels the seeds buried inside of you to grow.

There are many people who have taken what they learned through advocating on behalf of their own children in education and have created something beautiful out of it. By helping others. Spreading everything they have learned.

Some people have turned it into a new career, have gone into politics, taken on leadership roles, become “advocates”, or volunteer in various support roles in their communities. Parents have gone back to school to become teachers, education assistants, literacy tutors, non-profit leaders, etc. People have been evolving, pivoting, and shifting as they navigate life. But they are forever bringing what they learned and practiced with them, and other people are benefiting.

I feel very grateful for having the opportunity to return to school and get a second degree. This time in criminology and legal studies. I work as a Health Care & Human Rights Legal Advocate for the most traumatized and marginalized population of people in our society. Most of my clients are disabled. The extent of trauma that they have lived through, and are currently living through, I can’t even wrap my head around as to how these people are still breathing. I never talk about my work to friends or family. I see it as an act of love that I keep this part of my life away from them. This work isn’t for anyone who can’t live in the grey. The government systems I advocate in are brutal, abusive, and oppressive, intentionally targeting my clients behind system-approved processes. I have meetings with dangerous people who all wear suits and say they care. I love my job. I do a mix of direct 1:1 individual client work and also systemic work. Every day is a protest. A strategic act of rebellion. A part of my advocate role is that I write human rights complaints and represent clients navigating human rights systems. If you ask me where I want to be in five years and what I want to be doing, it is this. Here is where I want to be. Everything I have experienced, navigating my own experience advocating for my children and navigating the BC HRT combined with my own lived experience, has benefited my clients. I learn more every day.

To the parents out there who are in the dark. Furious. Angry. Ready to take on the world. I say this: use it. Be open to what the future will place in front of you. It may not feel like it, but you are learning so much right now. You are in the thick of it now, but you won’t always be. You never know what nuggets of gold you are learning and how this will help other people in the future. People are always going to need help. The need will never end. It’s natural for advocates to take breaks. Collect ourselves. Reflect and sometimes pivot into other helping roles. But our experiences are never wasted.

They aren’t breaking you. They are building you.

You never know…..

Just be open.

One day you may find yourself in the most wonderful position in life. To help someone else.

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Masking – Students who say – “I’m fine”

There are a lot of kids out there who are masking at school. They are like calm ducks on the outside and their feet are paddling a mile a minute under the water.

Parents are raising concerns in meetings, and the teacher or counsellor will pull the child aside and ask them if they are ok. Child says, “I’m fine”. The teacher will report back to the parent, “We had a conversation with them and they say they are fine.” Implying that the parent is overreacting.

Meanwhile, we are ready to rip our faces off, desperate for the school to take our concerns seriously as we see the meltdowns and dysregulation when they get home.

This comes from the Meaningful Inquiry decision from a self-representing parent. If you have a child who masks during the day, these paragraphs may be helpful for your advocacy. With this decision, you have evidence that the tribunal says: It is not enough for the school to accept “I’m fine” from a child.

Student (by Parent) v. School District 2023 BCHRT 237

[96]           On balance, I am not persuaded that the District’s response to the situation after April 24, 2019, was a reasonable one. The Parent had brought forward relevant facts of the Student’s diagnoses and the toll that school was taking on her. I do not accept that the onus was entirely on the Parent or Student to utter the magic word of “accommodation” before the school took steps to explore the reasons that the Student’s mental health was being so impacted by school. Nor do I accept that the simple fact that a 13-year-old child with anxiety says they are “fine” is enough to end a school’s obligations. At this point, the school had enough information to understand that something at school was adversely impacting the Student in connection with her disabilities, and it was in the best position to investigate the causes. If it felt it needed more information from the Parent or the Student, it could have and should have asked. Again, the goal is to ensure that the Student is afforded equitable access to an education.

[97]           I distinguish the cases cited by the District. In Purdy v. Douglas College, 2016 BCHRT 117, the complainant was an adult in post-secondary education. She requested, and was granted, accommodations in her course load and support navigating various student services and her exam schedule. The College was proactive in asking the complainant whether she needed accommodation, including when she fell behind in her classes and was late handing in coursework. In response to the College’s inquiries, the complainant said she did not need accommodation and did not provide medical information that the College requested. In her human rights complaint, the complainant argued that the College failed to identify she was struggling and failed to act to support her in her education: para. 72. The Tribunal dismissed the complaint in part because the College could not have known she required further accommodation.

[98]           Importantly, unlike the District in this case, the College in Purdy had repeatedly asked the complainant whether she required accommodation and offered her opportunities to submit medical information. Having done that, it was entitled to rely on the complainant’s statements that she did not require accommodation, rather than “speculate” about what she might need: para. 75. In contrast here, the District was not proactive in asking the Student and Parent about possible accommodations and offering the opportunity to provide medical information. And I cannot conclude that, in light of what it knew from the Parent, the District’s obligations were satisfied after the Student – a child – said she was fine.

[99]           Next, in B v. School District, 2019 BCHRT 170, the evidence supported that the school district provided the child with the recommended supports and accommodations. The Tribunal found that it was “only with hindsight” that it was possible to say that the child could have benefited from more support: para. 81. It dismissed the complaint in part because there was insufficient evidence to demonstrate that the school district reasonably ought to have known that the child required more: para. 98. In contrast here, I have found that the District had sufficient information to trigger some kind of inquiry or response beyond asking the Student how she was doing and, assuming the counsellor did this, advising of available supports.

[100]      In short, I agree with the District that the Parent and Student were obliged to bring forward information relating to accommodation. The Parent did that, when she communicated that the Student had anxiety and trichotillomania and that school was taking a significant toll on her physical and mental health. That information should have been enough to prompt a meaningful inquiry by the school to identify what was triggering the Student’s symptoms and what supports or accommodations may be appropriate to ensure she was able to meaningfully and equitably access her education. The failure to take that step was, in my view, not reasonable. As a result, the disability-related impacts on the Student, arising from conditions in her Language 10 class between April 24 and June 27, 2019, have not been justified and violate s. 8 of the Human Rights Code.

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From the same case, the student who testified at the hearing explained this:

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[44]           The counsellor then checked in with the Student, who reported that “she is doing well [and] is finding the workload fine”. In fact, I accept that the Student was not doing well. In her evidence, the Student explained, “I just wanted everything to be ok, so I said that it was” and “I didn’t want to make more of a hassle than was already happening so I didn’t want to add on it… I thought that I could just get it over with I guess”. The counsellor did not take further steps after this meeting.

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In this case, discrimination was found and the tribunal made an order.

If your child is masking and it sounds and looks like this, it doesn’t need to be exactly that they say “I’m fine”. But are they saying other things that are similar?

If you are raising concerns, they have to investigate BEYOND just accepting your child saying they are fine.

This case highlighted, for the first time, the duty to inquire in education, and called it “Meaningful Inquiry”

A parent needs to inform the school that their child is struggling and that they believe this struggle is connected to their disability. The school must investigate. They have to be proactive and ensure the child is receiving equitable access to their education.

It also brought forward and defined expectations around self-advocacy for students with disabilities.

[90]           Generally, it is the obligation of the person seeking accommodation to bring forward the relevant facts: Central Okanagan School District No. 23 v. Renaud, 1992 CanLII 81 (SCC), [1992] 2 SCR 970. This can be challenging for children, and especially challenging for children with invisible disabilities. I agree with the Parent that children who require accommodation in their school are in a different situation than adults seeking accommodation. Though they have a role to play in the process, that role will be age and ability-specific, and the burden cannot be on a child to identify and bring forward the facts necessary for their accommodation.

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If you take your case to hearing, or are even in a mediation meeting, the school knows that they will need to provide the tribunal with documentation and evidence that they are providing a child with reasonable accommodations. If they can’t do that, they know they are in trouble. Hence, when you start using rights-based language in your emails, advocacy can be very effective. They are thinking of their liability and the damage period.

To read more about the nuggets from this case, here are more blogs:

Self-Advocacy and Victim Blaming

Self-Advocacy, Meaningful Inquiry, IEP, Transition to High School

Part 3 – Meaningful Inquiry Duty to Inquire

As always, I encourage people to read the case in full.

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Teacher Training – Is it enough?

One of my children had a particularly stressful year in school. It flipped both our lives upside down. I left my work because of it. The teacher was ill-equipped to teach a child with learning disabilities. Added to the mix, there were issues of severe bullying within the class. Without going into specifics, it was an “active” classroom on top of everything else. I was so frustrated about the whole situation and felt the adults in the room really didn’t know what they were doing. Some of the information I was providing to them about disability felt very basic to me. Their old school traditional ways of teaching were not working. And just increasing the intensity of traditional pedagogy was making things worse.

Years later I found out from another parent who volunteered in the school that the classroom teacher was frequently, almost on a daily basis, leaving the class in tears. She also had two very young children at home, and I can imagine now just how overwhelmed she must have felt.

Jumping ahead a few years, it was revealed during the hearing at the BC Human Rights Tribunal, for my other child, just how ill-equipped and lacking in knowledge related to disability and mental health the teachers and school counsellors really were.

It seems people’s individual knowledge and skill level had more to do with their own interest, motivation, work experience and self-learning. This produces such a wide spectrum of knowledge among educators. Some people have been amazing and very helpful. People I relied and on and was so thankful for their knowledge. Other people, I wonder how on earth they got here.

One teacher at our hearing, under oath, testified that after graduating from a well respected university program that the word “accommodation” wasn’t something that they had heard of. Ummm….teaching universities…..you might want to review your education program. Shall I name you and read out the transcript? Or was the teacher lying? Or were they confused? A classic defense. Apparently everyone becomes confused when allegations appear. And yet tribunals write in decisions that educators are the experts and they get to decide what professional recommendations to implement or discard.

Teachers are graduating with so little knowledge in their duty to accommodate, human rights, disability and mental health. Basic mental health, like anxiety. Professional development workshops on inclusion are optional. WTF! It sends the wrong message. Apparently skills in inclusive education are nice to have but not essential. Our kids are optional folks!

At another hearing from the BC Human Rights Tribunal, an educator admitted “We aren’t trained for this”. What are you trained for? Teaching the neurotypical kids who are natural sponges and have no barriers for learning? Is that it?

I know there are recent efforts to improve training and skills in educators, and some people currently completing education ready to bust out, but it is still optional for educators and we need a lot MORE! We need to take these researchers and teachers of teachers and clone them. Spread them everywhere.

So many students are not even identified because teachers can’t even tell when a child has a learning disability. I assumed all teachers would be able to identify this. Nope. The skills and knowledge that staff have are very inconsistent. The best teachers are the ones when their own children have disabilities or themselves and they can take their own lived experience and knowledge and combine it with their foundational training. I don’t know what we would do if we didn’t have them.

I knew one teacher who had ADHD didn’t want to disclose it to their colleagues for fear they would think less of them. What does that tell you??

Even with literacy screening recently in kindergarten, do teachers know what to do next? There is no shame is admitting, that you don’t. It’s not your shame to carry, it’s the post-secondary institutions that you paid good money to. There are surveys and research being done and with reports of “severe instruction deficiencies” for teachers who know how to teach kids with dyslexia. Go ahead and take a deep dive on the internet. If you are lost and confused, you are not alone. An education law book was very explicit over how much administrators lack knowledge in education law and human rights.

I don’t want to start giving personal examples about just how shocking the myths, stereotypes and lack of knowledge around disability is amongst classroom teachers and administrators. I was stunned. My trust was completely shook during the hearing. I thought to myself, wow, I really gave them a lot more credit and depended on them than I ever should have. From this point forward I need to assume no one knows anything. You want evidence of just how serious of an issue this is, you can come to my home and read through all of the evidence I have organized in binders.

The number of teachers and educational assistants willing to work in the education system are becoming so low, districts are hiring “responsible adults”. Oh my goodness. Please send help.

I would really love a HUGE spotlight to be tilted towards post-secondary education programs for teachers, and professional development workshops on inclusion and disability. The fact that parents are still dealing with teachers who are punishing neurodivergent/disabled kids because they don’t have “listening bodies” is incredibly frustrating and discriminatory.

WHY are disability and inclusion professional development workshops optional? That is quite the message. Received loud and clear. As a system, do you not find this embarrassing? The teachers who are not signing themselves up for this kind of training, I would argue, are probably the ones who need it the most. The undercurrent of this blog is ableism. Who are we prioritizing? Who are we ignoring? Who are we making optional? Let us think and reflect on this.

Teachers, this can’t be fun for you either. Can you imagine how stressful it would be to have so much responsibility, be held to standards, to potentially be defending your decisions in a hearing, and not even be properly provided with information and skill to do your job in the first place?

This is a topic where I feel we can all come together and be on the same page. It benefits everyone to have teachers feel confident and be skilled.

Improved mandatory teacher training in disability,
mental health and inclusive pedagogy please!!

Please don’t send teachers the message that teaching kids with disabilities are optional.

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School Trustees

We are having elections this fall. It is a big deal and a big commitment for people to make when they run for a school trustee role.

You are in the public eye. Under the microscope. Some districts more than others. Some districts make the news and clips of their board meetings are spread on social media. Other districts, the general public doesn’t even know they exist. However, in those smaller towns, where everyone knows everyone, you may certainly be talked about just as much.

Parents have mixed views of trustees. We need them badly. We have so much hope in them. Some of that hope is unrealistic. Which, I am guilty of having. At the same time parents have had some negative experiences with interacting with some board members.

Trustees roles are impactful and limiting at the same time. They are not in the driver’s seat for many things and other things they are. Parents see them as the accountability mechanism, but yet trustees can only bring about accountability in very specific circumstances prescribed to them by legislation and policy. At the same time, districts vary greatly in how transparent and open they are to the public. Some districts limit and restrict delegations, public engagement or refuse to answer parents questions.

Trustees are our community members. Many of them are parents themselves. It can feel very confusing when we think they aren’t fighting for us, and at the same time they have liability restraints too. Being a trustee means that you are constantly working within the grey.

We have seen tremendous devotion to the role of school trustee, by fighting the government through the court system. We have seen trustees turn on each other. We have seen how a human rights complaint and other legal avenues are used as accountability systems for a trustee spouting hate speech. Board meetings can be sometimes be dry, uneventful and feel so performative. Some districts have accused trustees seeking accountability for bullying and harassment. If you have been paying attention in the last few years, as a whole it can be quite dramatic.

I tip my hat to anyone who wants to get into the ring. The ultimate form of service for your community. I know they take a lot of heat for things they aren’t responsible for or have no way of resolving on their own as the education system is massively underfunded. I have also seen first hand them defend, quite passionately, the rights of others when someone shows up unexpectedly with statements of hate. Parents also question how they allow superintendent and senior administrators salaries to become so inflated.

Some districts have been accused of suppressing the public involvement and being undemocratic, lacking in transparency. Parents have gone to the media to protest the limitations and unfairness.

I saw an old picture I found during an internet search of a school board meeting in the 1970’s and the room was packed. Standing room only. You couldn’t add a toothpick in that room. It was so interesting to read the emotions on people’s faces.

I cannot say this enough, please read up on your candidates and vote. Four years is a long time and many people continue and run again. Know where they stand and what their backgrounds are.

If you are interested in understanding and learning about education that goes beyond the scope of your child’s classroom, I encourage you to attend board meetings. Many of them offer online options to view the meetings that are more accessible. Attending in person can also be valuable to talk with the other parents in the room or to be able to talk to the board members during the break or after the board meeting. In my early days I was attending the board meetings in person for multiple purposes. I wanted to connect and learn about the board members. Figure out the roles and what happens here. I was depending on them for help. The district was failing me. They were my last hope. At the same time, my attendance was an act of resistance for the staff. A silent protest. Good luck ignoring me. I am not going away.

As I was navigating the years, I thought the Board was also against me. I was really confused. I was seeing mixed signals all over the place. I was weeding through bread crumbs of information that were being indirectly tossed out at me. I wondered how much the district was keeping the board in the loop. If you aren’t contacting the trustees directly, the district decides what information they are willing to share. I think there is a lot that they still don’t know.

This fall will be 7 years since I attended my first board meeting. I didn’t realize it. But as I was navigating through my pile of shit, they were also navigating through theirs. I now have more pieces of evidence that as evidence started to show up for them, they have been my secret ghost writer, backing me up. They shifted things in the district that were within their powers. Things I would never have been able to do without them. This was clearer to see when everything was done and I was able to re-examine everything with unfogged eyes. I realize now I have been funneling my anger at the wrong people. Change is never immediate.

For all the people who will be starting their first terms this fall with dewy eyes, I hear the learning curve is sharp.

Don’t lose yourself in the system.

You will need courage to do well.

You will need to be able to sit in the uncomfortable zones, hang out there for a while, and get curious.

I hope you evolve, take in all the experiences you can, and just get better and better.

For those of you who are stepping away, I hope you are proud of the work you have done. I hope you leave with a sense of peace. For those running again, I hope with good intentions, all the best.

Please vote.

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When a preferred EA is no longer supporting your child.

This case is from Ontario, not BC. It may be influential and cited by the school district’s lawyers.

M.B. v. Toronto District School Board, 2026 HRTO 801

This case is about a parent who felt that when their child’s 1:1 EA (this specific person) was removed, that the school failed to accommodate their child.

Continuity of care is a topic that many parents are passionate about. Your child’s EA works so beautifully together with your child, and your child is doing so well; it can be very concerning when that specific EA is no longer supporting your child. What can you do?

There are a couple key learnings that we can takeaway from this case. There is no point in parents who are struggling with similar issues continually entering the human rights tribunal arena to have all their complaints dismissed.

Reading education cases can be very valuable as we learn what the tribunal will expect in terms of evidence and what we need to prove our case. We take this learning forward with us, and we are like the marshmallow man in Ghostbusters. As a community, we’ll just get bigger and bigger. It is because of their determination that we can learn from their decisions and be better prepared if you ever decide to file a complaint over similar issues. I hugely thank all parents willing to take this path. Every decision is GOLD.

Key Learnings

  1. Stating your opinions or your feelings about how your child is not going to meet the bar of evidence required. You need documented evidence.
  2. You need to be able to explain in detail events/areas of frustration & unmet needs, not just make vague assertions about your beliefs.
  3. The school is documenting everything. Including what you say and what you DON’T say.

As always, I encourage you to read the case in full.

The student’s preferred EA was Mary Valmas. The applicant is the student’s parent. The EA, Mary Valmas was no longer working with the student in 2019-20.

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[25]      Both applicant witnesses testified as to their belief that the claimant had done academically well when provided 1:1 services from SNC Mary Valmas and, after Mary Valmas was moved to another school, the claimant no longer received 1:1 support from Mary Valmas or any other SNC, the claimant was disadvantaged in no longer being able to fully participate or access meaningful education.

[26]      I understand and accept from the two applicant witnesses that Ms. Valmas had a positive working relationship with the claimant and his mother. The evidence was that Ms. Valmas is very dedicated to her role and she wished for the success of the claimant. It is clear from the evidence that the claimant’s mother loves her son very much and the claimant’s mother was happy with the working relationship between the claimant and Ms. Valmas. On that basis she wished for it to continue.

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The school district had their witness, Ms. Jones.

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[29]      The claimant’s mother testified as to her belief that the claimant required the specific supports. However, I did not hear why, other than the claimant’s mother’s general belief that the claimant required disability-related accommodations at school and the accommodations of 1:1 support specifically with Ms. Valmas had been up to that point a positive experience for the claimant. As stated above, I agree and accept that the claimant required accommodations and I believe the mother that the claimant worked well with Ms. Valmas, but this testimony alone fails to adequately establish that the claimant required the 1:1 support by Ms. Valmas or another full time SNC.

[30]      I preferred the respondent’s fully uncontradicted documentary and oral evidence from Michelle Jones. Ms. Jones’ testimony was fully supported by documentary evidence that were filed as exhibits. Ms. Jones testified that she was the Assistant Curriculum Lead of Special Education at John Polanyi Collegiate Institute (“John Polanyi”) with the respondent school board during the 2019-2020 school year. Ms. Jones testified that on January 25, 2016, the claimant’s family participated in an Identification, Placement, and Review Committee (IPRC) meeting before the claimant started secondary school at John Polanyi. At that IPRC, the claimant continued to be deemed “exceptional” with the exceptionality being a Mild Intellectual Disability.

[38]      Rather, I preferred the respondent’s fully uncontradicted documentary and testimony evidence from Michelle Jones. Ms. Jones testified that in the 2019-2020 academic year the claimant was successful and arguably more successful than he had been in the two study years prior. I further reviewed the claimant’s Ontario Student Transcript, which showed that he earned all 8 of his credits taken during the 2019-2020 school year, whereas during the 2018-2019 school year, he only earned 7 credits as he did not pass mathematics and needed to repeat it and in the 2017-2018 school year, the Applicant earned 6 only credits, as he did not obtain his English or mathematics credits in his second semester.

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Here is the big thing right here.

If you don’t write about concerns, then the assumption is that everything is fine.

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[39]      Moreover, Ms. Jones testified that during the 2019-2020 school year, she received no concerns by the claimant or his supports about any of his academic accommodations, social-emotional health, safety concerns or any concerns about how the supports being provided were failing to meet his needs.

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Document. Document. Document.

Keep a timeline of “events”, issues or areas of frustration.

Email concerns you have about unmet needs not being reasonably accommodated.

If you bring your case to a hearing, this brings up the issue of parents providing evidence when they are not physically in the school witnessing anything and they are relying on their children’s information. That becomes a problem if you are going to testify and not your child.

Parents’ credibility is under scrutiny. For more information on this topic, I give you this blog. Does my Child Need to Testify?

This is why we rely on emails to document what is happening. What are the signs of distress or unmet needs that you are seeing at home? Keep a log. Write it down and then email the school and tell them. It will trigger meaningful inquiry. Part 7 – Applying the duty to accommodate – focus on needs.

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[42]      For the reasons set out above, the Application is dismissed.

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Here is some excellent advice from a fellow parent advocate:

“This relates to something that I tell parents. If an individual staff member is providing an effective support to your child, make sure that you document in the IEP.

Many parents mistakenly assume that if one staff member implements successful accommodations, then that will continue through to the next year. But if its not in the IEP, a staff member doesn’t have to provide it.

Staff members often won’t be able to spontaneously tell you about successful supports they are implementing, as it’s often an inherent part of their teaching/support style. Asking questions and documenting responses when things are going well is just as important as doing it when things are not going well.

So if a teacher says in an IEP meeting that your child is writing amazing essays, ask what it looks like for supporting your child through completing that activity. Then, get any successful supports documented, so if your child starts struggling to write essays the following year, you can reference the IEP support that was proven to be successful.

Make them know from experience that you will follow up and hold the school accountable to implementing IEP accommodations. That way, they are more likely to carefully consider which staff members are going to be most able to implement those accommodations based on their personal support/teaching style. I find this often helps with them putting more thoughtful consideration into class/EA placement.”

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Cease and Desist Letters

There are parents who have received a cease and desist letter. I don’t hear this often, but it does happen. Or they will be threatened with being given one.

Here is one example that went public.

Mom threatened with legal action after questioning B.C. principal who’s now accused of misappropriation

2014 letter from school board lawyer warned against ‘defamatory statements’ about Tricia Rooney

CBC News · Posted: Jan 25, 2023 4:12 PM PST | Last Updated: January 25, 2023

Mom threatened with legal action after questioning B.C. principal who’s now accused of misappropriation | CBC News

This parent knew something was wrong, and when she was questioning the spending she was served with a cease and desist letter. Years later, Tricia Rooney is investigated for misappropriating funds.

From the article:

“Last week, Lee’s phone “blew up” with messages from fellow parents when news broke that Rooney, also known as Tricia Low, was accused of misappropriating about $170,000 from Britannia Elementary, where she was principal from 2017 to 2020.

Lee says she felt somewhat vindicated by the news, but she was also angry.

“I have to unpack all the feelings that I have,” she said.

The allegations about misappropriation at Britannia are contained in a notice of claim filed against Rooney earlier this month on behalf of the school board, alleging “conversion, theft and fraud” from the tiny east side school. It includes allegations that she stole donated gift cards intended for families in need.”

One parent whom I am aware of, in another province, was served a cease and desist order because they were on a public platform and they were crying over what was happening with their child. The school district wasn’t aware, but this parent had retained a lawyer for over a year and they were building their case. After the cease and desist order, the lawyer hit them with with something so severe, that they would have begged for a human rights complaint. I thought, oooohhhhh these school district lawyers have made a BIG mistake. They had no idea who they were messing with. It’s a risky move for them to send this to a parent. You are poking the bear.

If you get served a letter like this, I would highly suggest you consult a lawyer.

Depending on what they are wanting you to stop doing, if anything, it may be appropriate to use it in your human rights complaint.

Here is my lawyer referral list. There are paid and free options on this list.

Lawyer Referral – Parent Advocacy Tribunal Help (School Advocacy)

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Part 7 – Applying the Duty to Accommodate – Focus on Needs

Two years ago, in the month of July, I wrote a six-part series on the Duty to Accommodate.

Part 1 – The Power of the Human Rights Code
Part 2 (a) – The Discrimination Test
Part 2 (b) – The Reasonable Justification Test
Part 3 – Meaningful Inquiry
Part 4 – Duty to Consult
Part 5 – Duty to Facilitate
Part 6 – Pulling it All Together

My goal was to make it more accessible and show people, through the trail of case law/tribunal decisions and Human Rights legislation (written authority), the rights their child actually have. Not just what the school district tells them – which is more focused on their own administrative processes and how they compartmentalize students administratively.

Most people when interacting with tribunals and specialized courts are self-represented. Law is not for the highfalutin lawyers. Law is for everyone. Knowing, understanding and applying our rights is a part of life, like grocery shopping and laundry. When we expect people to uphold our rights it does not mean we will automatically be engaging with lawyers either. School employees are duty bearers. Students are rights holders. Schools have the obligation and responsibility to uphold the students rights. (They just may not realize this.)

The pros (+) of the Human Rights Code:

  • It supersedes all school legislation, school board of education policy, administrative procedures and teacher classroom autonomy, etc, when in conflict (discrimination occurs). It is above all laws and policy – so powerful.
  • Every child has the legal right to be accommodated and receive an education.
  • It can create movement sometimes when nothing else has because of the accountability mechanism – human rights complaint process – the damage period.
  • The school knows if you file a complaint, they will have to justify or prove with evidence that they have accommodated your child up to the point of undue hardship.

The cons (-):

  • It only goes up to reasonable accommodations, not ideal or preferred accommodations.
  • The school is considered the experts, and they get to decide the accommodations, not you. You are there for consultation, but you are not the final decision maker.
  • If you don’t want your human rights complaint dismissed, you will need to facilitate reasonable accommodations whether you agree or not.
  • They get to decide class placement in “the best interest of the child,” not the parents’ wishes.

Pro (+) & Con (-)

  • Your rights are defined by case law (this is both very good and challenging). It’s how your rights are defined.
  • You are co-parenting with the government. For some reasons, this is fabulous, like the case law examples in the Co-parenting blog. For other parents they are going to find this frustrating, especially when you feel that you know more about disability and your child’s disability than the educators who are sitting in front of you.

The Duty to Accommodate will get your child into the classroom with barriers removed, which is HUGE. However, the school, with limited training in disability, has a lot of decision-making power and their own ideas on how to assess the functioning level of your child’s disability and remove those barriers. Add in layers of ableism with myths & stereotypes about disability.

Many teachers are still not aware that:

  • Accommodations are not rewards. No child needs to earn their accommodations with good behaviour.
  • They must follow a child’s IEP. It’s not optional or a nice to have or when there is time.
  • The Human Rights Code supersedes teacher classroom autonomy.

Parents are also struggling with educators not following their child’s IEP. There is, after internal advocacy, an accountability mechanism for that. Teachers’ standards are also a very important tool.

BUT….as I digress….

An important part of applying the duty to accommodate, after learning the language for email communication, is knowing where to focus your energy and what to focus on. This is a marathon, not a sprint. If you start taking extra side trips along the running path that are unnecessary and will lead to no where, you will exhaust yourself and deplete your capacity faster. You will burnout constantly trying to scale walls that are unscalable.

What do you focus on?

NEEDS.

You start with their needs. What are they struggling with?

This is how we apply the duty to accommodate.

As a parent, you are witnessing your child’s behaviour and communication at home. Whether they are hiding in their room, crying, having meltdowns after school, what they say, what they don’t say. You feel the energy shifts. The mood changes. The person you knew morphing into someone else. Behaviour is communication. You know your kids in ways that no one else does.

This is where you begin.

Because, since you don’t get to pick the accommodations your child will receive, you focus on the “problem” to be resolved. Which is the area of frustration.

I saw this book online. I haven’t read it. “Fall in love with the problem, not the solution.” It’s actually a book for entrepreneurs. I saw it on some book thread. It was talking about how people create products for life’s problems. An area of frustration. They will invent something that they make into a product and try to sell it to the public because it solves a problem. But if you really want to unleash your creativity, focus on the problem and not get overly attached to your solution.

I thought, wow, this really applies to advocacy, actually. We see the problem (what is not working), and we get attached to our solution. And if PAC, schools, Trustees or other people don’t adopt our solution, then we get incredibly frustrated. But if they don’t adopt our solution, we still have the problem. So toss it back to them. You don’t like my idea. Fine. Solve the problem – remove the barrier. And they need to make “the ramp” go all the way up the stairs, not just halfway.

We can’t tell schools what to do. We are here for consultation. But they are expected and responsible for solving the problem (removing the barrier). There may be multiple solutions. But they need to try and pick the best one (which is what we are here for) for our child and be willing to be flexible and try something else.

Fall in love with the problem, not the solution. In other words, focus on your child’s unmet needs.

Meaningful inquiry —–All you have to do is tell the school that your child is struggling, and this struggle is connected to their disability, and THEY have to investigate and figure this out.

While it is true…..

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Wells v. Manitoba (Human Rights Commission) et al., 2025 MBKB 86


 The school must be given some discretion with respect to the specific programming and supports it provided to its students based on medical documentation and ongoing assessments.  As subject matter experts in delivering education, it appears that the school would be in the best position to determine how to provide academic accommodation to students in accordance with its assessments and available medical documentations.

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Ok, then people. You want to be the experts. Be the experts. I’ll be here to consult and provide you with information on my child to help you figure out what the best accommodations are. But the responsibility falls on you. It doesn’t matter how fiercely parents advocate or if they don’t advocate at all; the school is still legally required to provide your child with an accessible education.

A quick nod to self-advocacy when it comes to students.

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 Student by Parent v. School District BCHRT 237.

[90]           Generally, it is the obligation of the person seeking accommodation to bring forward the relevant facts: Central Okanagan School District No. 23 v. Renaud, 1992 CanLII 81 (SCC), [1992] 2 SCR 970. This can be challenging for children, and especially challenging for children with invisible disabilities. I agree with the Parent that children who require accommodation in their school are in a different situation than adults seeking accommodation. Though they have a role to play in the process, that role will be age and ability-specific, and the burden cannot be on a child to identify and bring forward the facts necessary for their accommodation.

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Note to educators: If you are an educator and you are feeling overwhelmed or that you are not trained or educated enough in the area of disability or science-based reading interventions, you are NOT alone. I am fully aware that the system is setting you up for failure, and you all feel squeezed between a rock and a hard place. Get it. A lot of times, educators don’t know what to do, and they blame the child as their escape hatch. Even kids as young as grade one! For a lot of people, this seems to be a knee-jerk reaction. Is someone telling you to do this? I don’t get it. Communicating with the child is great. Blaming the victim after the fact. Not great. I really hope conversations are happening at union levels, administration levels, and teacher post-secondary levels are having conversations about proper professional development in disability and reading. Nothing from the 1950’s please.

Parents, you don’t need to accept excuses from staff for all the reasons they cannot accommodate your child or their blaming your child for not advocating enough. Staffing issues aren’t your problem. They are responsible for figuring this out. They aren’t allowed to give up on your child. They have to keep revising, monitoring and adapting.

If I were to bestow upon you all of the riches from all of the lands, it would be a support system and the duty to accommodate. Using human rights language does not mean we are foaming at the mouth in attack mode. Advocating for your child’s legal rights can be right in line with being pleasantly persistent. Some parents feel that rights-based language is too aggressive and they don’t want to feel unwelcome at the school. Don’t wait until you are so raging mad you are ready to storm the fortress. Build it into your advocacy from the start. Rights-based language is only aggressive if you make it to be. It can be very preventative. It can be what keeps you out of the human rights complaint process.

The duty to accommodate and accessibility legislation all focus on a disability-related need and removing a barrier.

For example:

Student with ADHD. – Teacher is noticing that your child is continuously not handing in their homework and relays this concern to you.

Disability-related need: Executive function skills that involve planning and memory. Focus; may have missed the instructions. Homework isn’t coming home. When it does come home and is completed, it doesn’t get handed to the teacher in the morning. It’s not because of a personality flaw or a character defect. Always look for how the areas of frustration are connected to disability features. Our kids aren’t lazy or unmotivated. They have neurological reasons for their behaviour and they need accommodations.

Barriers (Physical, Attitudinal, Structural) – Attitudinal & Structural (rules) – teacher feels the students are old enough that they shouldn’t have to prompt kids at the end of the day to remember to bring their homework home. Teacher doesn’t want to specifically ask for homework at the start of the day. They want the kids to put it in the homework bin “independently”. Physical – lack of visual prompts for homework reminders. Child is handwriting down instructions, and the printing is illegible. Parent doesn’t know how to support the child in their homework at home.

Focus on the needs. How does the teacher plan on removing the barriers? How can you manage the classroom and make it more inclusive so everyone is being prompted to take homework home and hand it in?

A parent might jump to the solution and want an EA to check in on them at the beginning and end of the day and be very frustrated when told there is no EA time for their child.

Focus on the need: the teacher needs to remove the barriers and figure out how to get your child’s disability-related needs met. If an EA isn’t available for individual prompting, how can they apply prompts for the whole class and make the supports inclusive to everyone? Maybe the teacher uses their classroom website to post homework to assist with parent support for completion. It’s up to them to figure this out. Maybe the student takes a picture of the instructions with their phone.

They need to remove the barriers and resolve the disability-related unmet needs. They need to consult with you, as you know your child, and figure out what will work for your child.

A KEY part in how we uphold our child’s rights is we DOCUMENT. I won’t regurgitate my documentation blogs here, so take a look through the blog list category.

Applying the duty to accommodate means creating a document trail.

I would argue that you are not engaged with rights-based advocacy if you are not creating documented communication between you and the school. (TIP: you may want a separate email address just for school communication. Never delete anything.)

Applying the duty to accommodate means you are aware of all of the duties under the duty to accommodate, you understand that it’s reasonable accommodations, not ideal, what your role is and the responsibilities of the school. You focus on needs. Unmet needs and barriers.

Generally….

Your role:

  1. Documenting your consistent communication. Communicate, communicate, communicate.
  2. Expressing unmet disability-related needs
  3. Consultation through the IEP process/accommodation meetings
  4. Whatever excuses the school gives you – they are responsible for figuring this out and resolving the barriers to your child’s disability related needs. Human Rights supersede.
  5. Be persistent. It will show them that your eyes are on them. Document the progress. What is working and what isn’t.
  6. Communicating needs is also really important so later they can’t claim hindsight.

School’s role:

  1. Remove barriers and provide your child with what they need so they can “access their education”.
  2. They will need to have evidence that they are providing your child with reasonable accommodations and that they are reviewing, adapting and responding to the changing needs of your child, whether you are advocating or not.
  3. They need to offer an opportunity for meaningful consultation with parents/caregivers.

Key Takeaway

  1. The duty to accommodate is powerful. (Please read the six-part series as your foundation.)
  2. It’s not going to get you 100% of what you want – it’s how your child’s rights are defined. School gets final decision power. “Reasonable” accommodations. Are they making reasonable decisions?
  3. Focus on your child’s needs. It doesn’t matter if they get a designation or an IEP. The schools’ obligations and legal duties don’t change. They still have to accommodate a child with a disability no matter how they administratively process your child.
  4. Be persistent, consistent and document your communication. You need that document trail, and writing about your child’s unmet disability-related needs should trigger meaningful inquiry. Then you are ready to go!

Conclusion:

Learning about the duty to accommodate and learning how to advocate is a life skill every person should have. Disabled or not. I have met adults with privilege who have horrible advocacy skills and are terrified of advocating. Just think of this as free training. You’ll become so good at this, that it will assist you in other areas of your life. (We had a car dealership sell us a car that had the wrong brakes in it. They thought they could wiggle out of it. I am not a door mat. They said to me, “What has happened in your life that you do not trust me?” LMAO. After weeks of persistent and consistent advocacy and calmly informing them I will take them to small claims court, they paid for our brakes to be replaced. They were tough. They really put up a good fight and they thought we would go away using the same strategies that school districts use. Nope. Sorry. Nice try. They don’t work on me. I know what to do.) Thank you school district for all of the advocacy experience and the ability to sharpen my skill. Conflict resolution, relationship building, advocacy – I am very ready for life.

I wish you all the best in your advocacy journey. I highly suggest you find your people for support. You are certainly not alone and you don’t need to do this alone either. There are a lot of parents out there walking the same path as you. If you want, you can find them.

Start here…

BCEdAccess Society
Family Support Institute
Inclusion BC

Here is my GET HELP page.

Best wishes,

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It is not about intent. It is about impact.

You do not need to prove or have evidence that your child’s school intended to harm them. That it was on purpose. Just that they did.

Let’s travel back in time to January 2020. Pre-COVID. I started an online course on Rental Property Management. I was lost in terms of what I wanted to do for work. There were aspects of rental property that intrigued me. Enough for me to take up an online course and see where it leads. This decision changed the course of my life.

I was reading a chapter a month, then took the online test. Each month, one more chapter. Then COVID hit. I had more time on my hands. Two chapters a month.

I found it to be quite boring. The only two chapters I found interesting were the chapter on law and the other one on human rights. A flag, a road sign, an indication of my interests. I started to read chapter 14 on human rights in the middle of August. (Note: One-year timeline for my child’s complaint was September 19th, 2020). At first, I was unaware the clock was ticking. I was reading through the chapter, and my eyes read this line:

“…the Human Rights Code does not require an actual intent to contravene (section 2). Thus, unintentional acts that have the effect of discrimination are prohibited under the HRC and are subject to the HRC’s remedies.”

This chapter was FULL of information all about the human rights process, complaint filing, and discrimination.

And I couldn’t stop thinking about it.

If you could envision a train going down one track, and someone pulling the lever to switch tracks. This was it. What was holding me back was that I thought I would have to prove that they intended to hurt her. I didn’t know how I would gather evidence for that. I didn’t have evidence for that at the time or that I would ever get it. (Through the application process, I did gather evidence of horror.)

I had previously looked at the BC HRT website, but it all looked really scary to me and overwhelming looking at all of the information. The never-ending pages.

It was THAT sentence and THAT chapter that sent me off to the Human Rights Clinic. It was easier to digest the content and the information when reading it all in chapter format than reading it off in sections on a website. I sent an email, with evidence attached, to the BC Human Rights Clinic. My question was, can I file a human rights complaint? 5 days later, they called me back. Told me to file.

And I was off.

The rest is history.

People usually need to feel that people are doing things intentionally to hurt their kids to justify filing a human rights complaint. School staff can be so ableist and ignorant that they don’t even realize the harm they are causing. Completely oblivious. They could also be prioritizing administrative convenience and other justifications that they willfully looked the other way. They may truly believe and think they are in the right, believing that they have teacher autonomy and they can decide if your child gets accommodations or not. That they don’t have to follow the IEP. It’s their classroom. Their circus. You don’t need to prove that they intended to harm your child, just that they did.

It all comes down to the discrimination test.

Which you have the burden to prove, with evidence.

It’s not about intent. It’s about impact.

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Human Rights Code:

Discrimination and intent

2  Discrimination in contravention of this Code does not require an intention to contravene this Code.

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This is from the BC HRT website on Leading cases: Test for discrimination

Leading cases: Test for discrimination

“Moore v. BC (Education), 2012 SCC 61
To prove discrimination, a complainant has to prove that:

  1. they have a characteristic protected by the Human Rights Code [Code];
  2. they experienced an adverse impact with respect to an area protected by the Code; and
  3. the protected characteristic was a factor in the adverse impact.
    .

Once a complainant proves these three things, the respondent can defend itself by proving its conduct was justified. If the respondent proves its conduct was justified, then there is no discrimination. If the respondent’s conduct is not justified, discrimination will be found to occur (para. 33).”

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I filed my first human rights complaint 5 days before the one-year timeline. Like Indiana Jones, I slid through just in time…and grabbed my hat.

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What do I do now?

It’s been three months since I wrote my Life After K-12 blog. I have been sorting myself out, trying to look at what moving on means and what that is going to look like.

I have declared that this summer I am taking a vacation and reducing my services and social media presence.

Less than 24 hours later, I was cleaning out my office at 5 am. Weeding through old textbooks I no longer need, books I would rather pass on. It was a synaptic neuron trim in physical form. Six bags ready to be donated.

In the process, it sparked a new blog. I’ll post it tomorrow.

I just can’t, for the life of me, seem to be able to shut up.

It seems every time I declare a break, I end up cleaning and clearing, only to start writing more.

People have asked me what my plans are. I can never see myself running for a school trustee position. That is way too peopley for me. Too much attention. Zero interest in participating in a political role. I don’t want to lead an organization either that I am currently not entrenched in, as the membership is. Being on the outskirts of that experience pushes me in another direction. My perspective is different. My nervous system has stabilized.

So now what?

So now I write.

Everyone who knows me well always chuckles when I say I am taking a break. They give me two days.

They aren’t completely wrong. I actually haven’t even lasted two days. I have submitted to and accepted my internal machine that seems to have an unlimited energy source. So why fight it?

Trying to damn the flow seems to exhaust me, and when I put pen to paper, I feel happy and energized. In the groove.

I love writing. It’s solitary. It’s a quiet activity that, when shared, is loud. My kind of loud. It is a process that takes the chaotic party happening in my head and funnels it into something speakable.

And so I write.

Not quite sure what to do with everything… yet. Where I want to carve out the river. But I’ll figure it out. I just need to keep writing. That I know.