Self-Advocacy and Victim Blaming in Education
Self-Advocacy for Students in School I have put this blog under my IEP category because this is a topic that parents deal with a lot during their IEP meetings. Teachers expect students to self-advocate during IEP meetings. Which can be really hard for kids, under that kind of pressure. They are also very eager to […]
Systemic Impacts of Scarcity in Education
I’d like to bring up the subject of scarcity and the concept of applying the impacts of limited resources in the education system. It could be physical, social, emotional, or mental scarcity. Limited resources change how people interact and behave at the most primal survival levels. There are already many scholar reports on how scarcity […]
What is the Ask? Email Writing for School Advocacy.
Before I jump into the theme of this blog, I do want to mention that if you email someone in the district (head office) and you don’t cc: the principal, the email you send to the district will be sent to the principal of your kids’ school first. They will check in with them before they touch base […]
What Does Ableism Look Like in Schools? It Looks Like This!
When a teacher daily allows a student with a learning disability to fail their class, but does not even lift a finger to inform the case manager or parent, that is ableism and its discrimination. Disabled children failing, falling behind and being excluded without accommodations have become the normality of the education system. It’s so […]
Groupthink…Does it Exist in School Districts and on Boards of Education?
Groupthink is defined as “a process of flawed decision making that occurs as a result of strong pressures among group members to reach an agreement”. “Groupthink is a phenomenon that occurs when the desire for group consensus overrides people’s common sense desire to present alternatives, critique a position, or express an unpopular opinion. Here, the desire […]
Why a Diagnosis
Why a Diagnosis? I worked as a school secretary and one day one of the teachers needed support from the principal for one of her students in the class. The principal was new and so she quickly went to the student files, plucked out the child’s file, flipped through it to make sure there wasn’t […]
Trying to Collaborate in Good Faith
Trying to collaborate in good faith and discuss “reasonable accommodations” can be the real murky (stressful) part of the accommodation process that has the most potential for disaster. This is where we are at our most vulnerable. Here is why. (Please read every single word of the next paragraph. Twice if necessary.) As part of […]
Why Can’t we Just Sue the Government?
Good question! Many parent(s)/guardians are asking this question. What they are experiencing in the education system is mass systemic discrimination and they are wondering how in the world is this allowed to happen?? Doesn’t the Charter protect our rights? Let’s tear this question to bits. Why can’t we just sue the government? Funding When you […]
“this family needed help beyond what I’m trained for” (para 58)
This was a statement by made by the Acting VP in a human rights decision. X by Y v. Board of Education of School District No. Z, 2024 BCHRT 72 [58] Y asked the Acting VP in cross examination how the break from the classroom would have been restorative for X had it […]
Daycare Termination and Disability
RE: New Human Rights Case linked to daycare and termination of daycare services due to a perceived disability. Mother obo Child v. Daycare, 2024 BCHRT 251 Since we all have most likely struggled with daycare issues at some point, I am posting this case. It is a very interesting case. A situation that parents find […]
