What is Reasonable? – Duty to Accommodate
A lot of human rights decisions from tribunals will focus on whether the school’s response and decision making was reasonable. Where the accommodations reasonable? Was the delay reasonable? Did they try and mitigate the harm? Was that reasonable? Given what they knew at the time about the child’s disability-related needs, did they make a reasonable […]
This is an Emergency!! Serious School Incidents
Not all education issues are sudden, turn into a panic, flip your life upside down or it’s an emergency that needs to get resolved right now. Some issues are slow and build over time. This blog is about emergencies. The sudden ones. If shit hits the fan fast, this is the go-to page. Some people […]
Policy Change/Training in Tribunal Decision?
This is very interesting!! This person won their case in a hearing! Woohoo! Employee R v. B.H. Allen Building Centre Ltd. dba RONA and others, 2026 BCHRT 105 This part I haven’t seen before in a decision. ******* [76] Employee R did not expand on his request with respect to policy changes or training during […]
BC HRT – You need evidence. Hearsay from your child will not be enough.
The term “hearsay” in this context is when kids come home and tell us things that happened at school that we didn’t witness ourselves. Here is the heart of the issue. ———- When your child comes home and tells you what happened in school that day—– that in of itself is not evidence the tribunal […]
Life After K-12
This blog is about healing from K-12 public education. It has been one full week since I announced I am taking a month break from both P.A.T.H and my Chair role at BCEdAccess. It was exactly what I needed. My decision was fast. I was fighting the urge to delete my Facebook account. I was […]
The Tribunal Take on Witness Testimony
I find reading human rights decisions FASCINATING!!! In this decision: Castro Mosquera v. North Horizon Immigration Consulting Inc., 2026 BCHRT 61 The tribunal member goes into detail about how a tribunal member will interpret witness testimony! ******* [15] For all witness testimony, I start from the presumption that the witness is telling the truth: Hardychuk v. […]
Reducing EA Support Hours = Discrimination
R.B. v. Keewatin-Patricia District School Board, 2013 HRTO 1436 This case is about the school district reducing a student’s Education Assistant (EA) support hours who was doing well with the EA support. The student originally had a full-time EA, and the district cut the time in half. The reduction in support hours led to an […]
Strong Advocacy = Written Authority
School staff have a lot of discretion and power in decision-making related to our children. Not just to their learning but to their socialization. This is given to them by the School Act, other collective agreements, and even human rights decisions uphold their expertise. At the same time, many of them lack knowledge in education […]
Accountability in Education – Government Action Needed
Accountability is extremely important in education. People who are the decision makers in children’s education have a lot of power. Their decisions have a direct impact on children’s development, learning, and mental health. Make the wrong decision, and it could send a child on the trajectory of self-harm, suicide, lifelong struggles with unemployment, mental health […]
“We Deny Each and Every Allegation”
When you file a human rights complaint, and if it gets accepted, you will receive an email notifying you that your complaint is proceeding. The school will get the email as well. This is the first time they will be contacted by the BC Human Rights Tribunal. They will have an opportunity to submit a […]
