Parent Advocacy Tribunal Help (School Advocacy)
with Kim Block
I hope you all have had moments of rest and relaxation. I was originally going to take a break from blogging and social media posts, but rest just seems to lead to more blog writing. So that plan went out the window.
Why am I so fixated on external complaints and education law? Because I know it can help people.
So for those of you who took a social media break or were away on vacation, here is a recap with a list of blogs from the end of June through August.
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.
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.
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.
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.
CBC News · Posted: Jan 25, 2023 4:12 PM PST | Last Updated: January 25, 2023
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)
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.
Staff and parents have filed or are considering filing a human rights complaint because of a comment another employee or educator said to them at work or during an IEP meeting.
The story comes out. Followed by some version of: “I can’t believe they said that to me.”
Does a single comment violate the Code?
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Brito v. Affordable Housing Societies and another, 2017 BCHRT 270
[41] However, not every negative comment that is connected to a protected characteristic will be discriminatory harassment contrary to the Code. It is certainly undesirable for people to treat each other rudely, disrespectfully, or inappropriately. However, it is not the Tribunal’s purpose to adjudicate disputes other than where a person’s protected characteristic has presented as a barrier in their ability to fully, and with dignity, access an area of life protected by the Code. In performing this function, the Tribunal is cognizant that the disputes brought to it arise between human beings, with all the imperfection that entails. Not every failure to be kind or professional requires state intervention. This includes failures with discriminatory overtones – and therefore highlights a distinction between comments that may be “discriminatory” in the everyday sense of that word, and comments that amount to discrimination, within the meaning and scope of human rights legislation.
[43] In the analysis of whether negative comments rise to a level of harassment that adversely affects a person in their tenancy, the context is critical. Where conduct occurs during a single incident, or does not otherwise amount to a pattern of conduct, the Tribunal will consider all of the circumstances to determine whether it violates the Code: Hadzic v. Pizza Hut Canada (c.o.b.Pizza Hut), [1999] B.C.H.R.T.D. No. 44 at paras. 32-33; Pardo v. School District No. 43, 2003 BCHRT 71. Those circumstances include “the involved parties, the context in which the comment was made, whether an apology was offered, and whether or not the recipient of the comment was a member of a group historically discriminated against”: Pardoat para. 12.
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One of the cases listed here is an education case.
Pardo v. School District No. 43, 2003 BCHRT 71
[12] In my view, all the circumstances must be taken into account when considering whether a single comment could constitute a contravention of the Code. Without suggesting that this is an exhaustive list, some of the relevant factors would be the egregiousness or virulence of the comment, the nature of the relationship between the involved parties, the context in which the comment was made, whether an apology was offered, and whether or not the recipient of the comment was a member of a group historically discriminated against.
If you want to research whether you think your single comment would reach the level of discriminatory harassment that created a barrier, you can search for other cases on CanLii. Here are my instructions. I found many cases by entering “single comment” in the DOCUMENT TEXT field.
I highly suggest you research other decisions and see if your situation is similar to or different from the decisions you find. It will help you determine if going this path is worth it to you as a way to resolve this. Resolution often can take many paths, and filing an external complaint is just one of your options.
The tribunal went through a LONG analysis of what is hate speech with this very well-known decision that got a lot of media attention. The School Trustee had to pay &750,000.00 for his ongoing explosions of hate speech.
Chilliwack Teachers’ Association v. Neufeld (No. 10), 2026 BCHRT 49
[120] The analysis of hate speech is driven by the dual harms it is intended to address: (1) the “grave psychological and social” harms experienced by individual members of the targeted group, and (2) the larger social harms caused by speech which “propagates, within social discourse, premises of inferiority that may gradually desensitize the majority and lay the groundwork for later, broad attacks”: Whatcottat paras. 73-74; Wardat para. 62. This second, social, harm is rooted in the recognition that “the end goal of hate speech is to shift the environment from one where harm against vulnerable groups is not tolerated to one where hate speech has created a place where this is either accepted or a blind eye is turned”: Whatcottat para. 131. This purpose-driven perspective must account for the specific context affecting the targeted group and the types of speech that, by drawing on pre-existing fears or stereotypes, is likely to expose that group to hatred or contempt.
[121] A finding of hate speech is reserved for extreme and egregious examples of delegitimizing expression, whose harms “cannot be prevented by the discernment and critical judgment of the audience”: Wardat para. 61; Whatcottat para. 46. Section 7(1)(b) of the Code does not protect against “hurt feelings, humiliation or offensiveness”: para. 47. It does not capture speech that is derogatory, false, or discrediting, or which ridicules, belittles or affronts the dignity of a group of people, including through the application of stereotype. Importantly for the purposes of this case, it does not capture speech which debates or speaks out “against the rights or characteristics of vulnerable groups”, unless the speech is made in a manner “which is objectively seen to expose them to hatred and its harmful effects”: Whatcottat para. 145.
[122] Hate speech exposes its targets to detestation and vilification. It includes “a component of looking down on or denying the worth of the other”: Whatcottat para. 43. Speech that exposes a target group to detestation tends “to inspire enmity and extreme ill-will against them, which goes beyond mere disdain or dislike”: Whatcottat para. 41. It seeks to “abuse, denigrate or delegitimize [the group], to render them lawless, dangerous, unworthy, or unacceptable in the eyes of the audience”. Speech vilifying a group accuses “them of disgusting characteristics, inherent deficiencies or immoral propensities which are too vile in nature to be shared by the person who vilifies”: Whatcottat para. 43.
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For those who are wondering if filing a complaint over a single comment will be dismissed in a dismissal application, I highly suggest you speak to a lawyer.
Here is my lawyer referral list. Some are paid, and some are free.
Here is what I would like to tell every new parent of a disabled/neurodivergent child entering the school system. I learned this the hard way. Hoping to pave a path so it’s easier for those who follow.
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You are going to be entering the school system and advocacy will be required.
How the school system responds to you, as a whole, is not personal. They are not peering into your soul and basing their response on what they see. Even if they really like you, it wont change their response. They will protect themselves no matter what, first.
School districts speak a different language. The language of liability. The language of ableism, racism, and patriarchy. They are assessing you based on risk. How risky of disruption or expensive are you going to be?
There is nothing wrong with you. You haven’t done anything wrong. This is not your fault.
The lens through which they evaluate and come to a conclusion about your child is not your shame to carry. It is theirs.
You are dealing with a colonial system. This is a machine that has been operating for a very long time. The machine thinks it is successful and wants to keep going.
When people gaslight you, try to control you, ignore you, and/or silence you, this is an example of the colonial machine. The machine has different priorities. Stability, predictability, risk-management, union contracts, power and control, etc. If the system were a person, we would describe them as narcissistic using coercive control.
If you are someone who has experienced abuse and trauma, this will be especially triggering.
However you cope with this, it is not your shame to carry.
However you learn to navigate K-12 education, please don’t internalize their behaviour towards you as a reflection of your own value.
How they behave is a reflection of the machine, and it has nothing to do with you.
How the machine grinds and turns the wheels is not a reflection of all who personally works within it. There are fabulous caring people in education. Some people help grease the wheel more than others. Some are completely oblivious to it. Others just think, this is how things work and defend the system. If you are in the school system long enough, you will meet wolves in sheep clothing. Intentional or not.
Being able to identify what is a reflection of the machine, can save your mental health and protect your emotional capacity when you advocate.
This is a chess game. There are rules. Learn to play the chess game and it will help you advance. Get the most of what you can for your child and their education while staying afloat.
There is hope.
You will know when you are not getting what your child is entitled to, where to focus your energy, or when it is time to leave. Knowledge is power.
You belong to a community, whether you have found us yet or not. Your people are out there. There are more people advocating for your child than you may realize. Movement has been occurring. The machine doesn’t want you to recognize those. So, we remind ourselves.
“The most common way people give up their power is by thinking they don’t have any.” – Alice Walker
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More blogs on the school system:
Liability in Education
School Emergencies
Understanding Systemic Change
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 find my site and contact me because other people are telling them, “You have got to talk to Kim!!” So, if there is a page you want to pass along to another parent in need, here it is.
Emergencies are different territories.
If this is an emergency situation after an incident, you will not be the only one realizing that this is a big deal and it could snowball into something so much worse. Trust me. The district knows too. They are NOT going to want to show it on their face or in their emails that they are aware of how bad this is. At least not until they meet with you. They are going to be curious and wonder:
They want to get into your head.
Why?
BECAUSE YOUR REACTION WILL TELL THEM EVERYTHING THAT THEY NEED TO DO.
Their goal is to…
Their liability processes have kicked into place. They have notified the School Protection Plan and they are waiting to see if you make a big deal out of this, and if you do, what are you going to do? To read more about how schools operate from a liability framework, read my Liability in Schools page and this blog on insurance. The insurance company will also weigh in as they are involved when incidents happen like this in schools.
They may be straight with you and ask you not to go to the media or file a complaint. They will reassure you that this will be taken care of, and your child will be supported.
They may offer you an external investigation and tell you that this will be investigated. (Their investigation will not be to find the truth and provide you with this information, it will be to reduce their liability.)
You may hear that staff are on a leave.
You will notice that your child is not on their list. They show up buried in #1. Keeping you satisfied. It absolutely kills parents to realize that schools actually aren’t focused on the best interest of your child in these situations; they are focused on themselves. You can use this to get what your child needs.
So, you may find yourself in this horrible situation. You can’t even process what has occurred. You may be at a hospital. You may have MFCD calling you. You could have the police contact you. Your child is traumatized and refusing to go back to school, and you are still in shock trying to process it all. The severity of all of this will differ. The end result is still the same. Trust has been broken and your child is refusing to go back, and you aren’t sure if you can even send them back after this. You have no idea how you are going to manage work when everything has just exploded.
So, what is your action plan in all of this?
I will break this down into themes and then put all of this into a timeline of steps at the end.
I know you are ragging mad right now, but I do encourage you to give yourself 48 hours before calling the media. Some parents have had success in reversing field trip decisions or exposing exclusion. In terms of stories from a “grab the publics attention” kind of stories, those are small potatoes. This emergency situation is so bad, it’s in a different category. A few things to know about the media from experience.
You may want to keep this in your back pocket and just know this is a possibility. But please, don’t make this decision when you’re mad. This could be used as leverage. You may feel that society needs to know about this. Finding the right reporter will be important. Please see my IN THE MEDIA page for reporter suggestions. You can also see what kinds of issues parents have taken to the media before. A lot of parents also feel that their issues are newsworthy, only to find out that reporters don’t want to touch the subject. Just because you feel that you can take it the media doesn’t mean the media will want to take it from you. Some subjects they won’t want to touch with a ten-foot pole, and sometimes the current news is just so horrific that it’s bad timing and they don’t think it’s enough of a story. I am aware of a couple of families who were shocked to find out that reporters didn’t want to publish their story.
The Superintendent may tell you they are going to have an External Investigator come and they will investigate everything and look into everything. These external investigators are mostly previous senior district administrators. A lot of them are retired Superintendents etc. A lot of people know each other from previous work and organizations. Some people have found them to be very biased.
Let me be clear.
This investigation is fully for them, and has nothing to do with you. This is for liability reasons. They can also use this as a way to get rid of staff they don’t want. If staff are a liability to them, they have launched into “constructive dismissal” techniques to drive them out or used investigation results to fire them. This is also something they can tell the Board of Education and/or the Ministry of Education that makes them look like they are taking care of things.
Doesn’t mean the investigation will be bad for you and not beneficial, but they are NOT going to investigate and then invite you into a meeting and tell you EVERYTHING that has occurred.
Here are some things you will hear.
Something you may want to ask:
Now this is something you may want to think about.
In addition to the demand letter option, you can always look into filing a lot of complaints, depending on what has happened. To review your options, please see my Overview of the Complaint System. They don’t want you filing complaints. So you can use it.
Think about what you want for your kid. What barriers will they need to get back into school?
NOW IS YOUR TIME TO ADVOCATE!!
They need to make things right by your child. They will never be able to undo what happened. They can’t just wave their arms around and the shock and trauma is gone. However, they should absolutely not be putting up any barriers to get your child back into school. The statement, “we don’t do that here” should not be coming out of their mouth.
They need to do everything in their power to remove the barriers, or deal with formal complaints.
You can use the complaints as a motivating factor. You may not want to file right away, as if they don’t remove the barriers you will have more to write in your complaint. You have one year to file a human rights complaint. There isn’t a time limit from the Teacher’s Regulation Branch (TRB). You can file a TRB complaint on teachers, Principals, and even the Superintendent. You may want to see how things unfold in the next few months before you file you anything.
You could send a demand letter, outlining everything you want. With a settlement amount. Just know, that you will be signing a release to not file any future complaints and they will want you to sign some version of a non-disclosure agreement/confidentiality agreement. For them this will close and end the issue.
The demand letter could be the fastest route to get you what you want. You may need settlement money to get your child counselling or other professional supports ASAP. You may want specific commitments and promises from the district in a written contract. Human rights complaints, even with fast-tracking, can take a couple of months to get into a mediation meeting.
Demand letters are an option. I know several parents who have been successful. Both public and independent schools. You can have a lawyer send a demand letter, or you can send one yourself.
*** Keep in mind no matter what the incident, it will need to be connected to a protected ground for the human rights complaint.
I know meeting with a lawyer sounds like a big deal. It is. I will NEVER forget the moment I walked into a lawyer’s office for a consultation. The office looked like something out of a movie. I was offered 5 different types of water. I didn’t even know 5 types of water existed. Geez, as long as it doesn’t come from the toilet, I am good! There is just something about meeting with a lawyer and talking about your kids’ school that just makes you want to sob and wonder WTF is going on here. What planet am I on???
The money you spend on a lawyer could be sooo worth it in the long run. You are getting legal advice. There aren’t any missing blind spots. They can write up your demand letter or human rights complaint for you. They may think of things or be aware of things that you haven’t even thought about.
They can do the labour that parents find keeps them afloat. You can focus on your kid and the lawyer can deal with the school.
I have a lawyer on the list that I refer out to. I have never met this person. I have never talked to this person in any form of communication. There are no benefits coming to me at all when I make this referral. I have heard such positive feedback from parents that this is the law firm I pass along to everyone who wants a specialized education lawyer referral. There aren’t many who specialize in this field, and he is one of them. Here it is:
For a list of free legal consultation services, here is my list. Some parents have found pro bono lawyers who are willing to help.
For public schools – the Ministry typically doesn’t respond to individual issues, but when you have issues that involve a group of children, then they respond. Action happens. They just won’t tell you about it. If nothing else, you leave a paper trail and documentation.
For independent schools – they have an independent investigator at the Ministry of Education. If your emergency reveals issues at the school that harm other kids as well, you may be able to trigger an investigation. If nothing else, you leave a paper trail and documentation.
I encourage people to tell the Ministry and you can notify the Superintendent that you are doing that. They aren’t going to like it. So, you can use that in your favor as well, if you like. Sometimes school districts need a little nudge. Or it can bring you some peace knowing that other people are aware.
Both public and independent schools have appeal processes.
For public schools its called Section 11 under the School Act.
For independent schools, they will have their own process you will need to ask about. However persuasive they may be that they don’t have one, they need to have one, they should have one. The Ministry of Education will tell you to go that route.
Each Trustee is responsible for a zone in your district. They are elected as a method of accountability and oversight for the district. Contacting them and letting them know what is going on is something you may want to consider. It will make the district administration sit up straighter when they know the Board is aware.
*******
ok, so we have now arrived at the timeline.
An emergency happens. Everything explodes. Now what?
*** Advocacy in emergency situations can be similar to slow-burn situations because we still need to be focusing on our child’s disability-related needs and removing barriers. Children have a right to feel physically and psychologically safe at school. Duty to accommodate still applies.
The first step is going to feel awful, but it is an absolute must to consider.
Depending on the level and context of the emergency, some people have been able to take sick days, or some people have taken a leave of absence. When your child refuses to go back to school, all of a sudden, you are left scrambling.
Your employer has the duty to accommodate you too, under Family Status. You need to officially request accommodations from your work. Just don’t quit. If you have concerns about your employment, it may be worth it for you to consult a lawyer. (See referral above).
This isn’t going to be easy, and it will probably push you past your comfort zone and up to the limits of your capacity.
In amongst all of the chaos, if you don’t think of yourself and your own needs, you will not be doing anyone, including your child, any favours.
You will need your own support. Ask for help.
Here is my school advocacy help directory list.
Finally, I wish you all the best. I’d love to say that school emergencies are rare and far and few between. I have had enough parents contact me over this topic, both public and independent, that I realized there was a need for this page. If you are someone who is aware of another parent in need, please do share.
Alright, we have seen how the Ministry can “inadvertently” not disclose documents. (wink wink). Yeah right!
Lawyers not disclosing documents and withholding evidence they shouldn’t be, isn’t a new issue AT ALL! They can pull some sneaky shit. This is one area they like to take advantage of, and sometimes it takes a legal process to pry out the evidence. People who engage in litigation for their employment, deal with this issue more than they should. It’s bad, and I don’t want to normalize it. I am just not shocked at all that they had disclosure issues.
Improper conduct complaints have been filed at the BC Human Rights Tribunal (BC HRT) around this issue and I have read decisions when respondents have had to pay costs ($$$) if it discovered during the process of a hearing that documents were not disclosed.
Parents can file a Freedom of Information (FOI) request for documents to their school district requesting information about their child and personal information about themselves as well. If you want an example of how to write this, and have some added information about this process that is good to know, I have a Freedom of Information page. If you look on your district’s website they should have information about it. Know that they will view this as an adversarial move. Just be aware. They don’t like them.
I can tell you right now, you are NOT going to get all the evidence you want through your FOI request alone. It is going to take some time and detective work.
Because schools have risk-management and liability as the captain of their ship for decision making, they are NOT going to just roll over and give you all the evidence you need to be successful against them in a legal process.
You still may get some pretty interesting things in your FOI response package. I have. Some of it has been VERY interesting. They accidently sent copies of emails they sent to their lawyers during one FOI request. Another FOI request gave me an email from the external investigator trying to soothe the staff, saying she had experience with difficult parents. That gave me a good chuckle. Never thought I would be labelled a difficult parent for not wanting innocent children to be hurt. But the GOLD NUGGET evidence I had to get was through the Application process during my human rights complaint.
Let me tell you all about this little adventure.
I submitted an FOI request. What I got back was a lot of documents. They printed them off and shipped them to my house. Around 500 pages. Interesting. Other packages came digitally, so I don’t know why I got paper copies of this one. Other parents have received paper packages sent to their house as well.
I was chunking up the topics and going through everything. Then I put everything back into order. It was then that I realized pages were missing. It would go from 168 and the next page would be 172. ummm. hello. what?
Then there was this one document in particular, a very important email that I was never provided, that was sent to the staff in the school about my child. It was not in the FOI package. BUT. I had an email from the staff member who told me they would be sending this email out, so I knew it had to exist.
When you file an Office of Information Privacy Commissioner (OIPC) complaint, you have to go back to the school district and say, hey, I notice that __________ is missing. Can you recheck your files please and send it to me. When they don’t. Then you can file a complaint. Which I did. By the way, you can file a compliant too if you find the redactions questionable. AND they do push on that. So if they think they can hide stuff and get away with it, they absolutely will. You need be a detective. You need to read everything and look and see if people are talking about meetings, or communicating with people, or sending emails about things that you don’t have notes or copies of. (Also note, the school district will take all the extensions they are allowed to take. They will respond to you late, and make you come to them in hopes you lose it. To exhaust you.)
Now, a complaint with OIPC about missing documents mean you are filing due to an “inadequate search”. Basically, OIPC says, school district can you look more, and the school says, okay fine we did and we couldn’t find it. Then OIPC will come back to you say, they looked and couldn’t find it. OIPC is satisfied. File closed. …..eek…okay then…..
OIPC doesn’t have much teeth with this topic. But I still recommend parents file an OIPC complaint. More work for the district and it forces them to lie to the OIPC. If you ever find out that they weren’t honest, you can go back to the OIPC and re-open the file. If OIPC concludes they were up to no good, you could take that and give it to the Board of Education. Say, hey, your school district is not ethical.
So my file was closed. I did not give up.
I waited….
We reached document disclosure time. The respondents did not provide the email in their disclosure package. I asked them for it. They said they didn’t have it. I told them I was filing an application anyways, which I did. Years of being told they didn’t have it. I never believed them. The form to file an application for documents is Form 7.1 GA 9- tick off the box to order the other party to disclose documents.
Sent in the application and lo and behold. Guess what. (insert eye roll). Along comes the email saying that they found it in someone’s email inbox. This was an email that was sent YEARS ago. The district’s inbox doesn’t hold that much. I know that because I worked for them. They would have had to dig this up in their delete folder along with everything else they dug up. LIARS. If this email wasn’t disclosed they would have had a very strong defense that my child’s teacher wasn’t aware of their disability which would have been a game changer in their favour. So, this was a huge win for me.
Now about document disclosure in general. Which occurs after an unresolved mediation meeting. If they want to settle with you, you wont reach this stage. The document disclosure the lawyers gave me was friggen ridiculous. They basically try to overwhelm you with many pages of absolutely nothing. I wrote a report on a related issue I was advocating with a group of parents on, and it was 50 pages. They gave me that same report 12 times just connected to different people’s email as an attachment to make their disclosure bulk up. 600 pages of my own writing. Geez, thanks! Their document disclosure wasn’t anything I already had, and they resent me stuff I sent them back to me.
I had to FIGHT for every little piece of evidence that I got. And then when I was getting stuff through the MULITPLE applications I was sending. They were redacting stuff. I didn’t even know if they were allowed to do that or not. So I asked my case manager. They said I could ask to have it removed. So I did. And they were still sending me stuff not fully unredacted. So I had to ask again. I am telling you. Prying evidence out of them will take nothing but sheer persistence. But if they are fighting this hard to keep it, you know it is GOLD. And oh boy!!! Was it ever. Like fall of your chair kind of evidence. I can’t believe staff were putting this stuff in writing. I can tell you the district has since tightened up what they document. For parents who are now struggling with the district not willing to document anything. Sorry folks. I think I had something to do with that. The district learned their lesson.
Another thing I want to tell you about documents. If they keep resending you document packages and shuffling things around with new dates and new subject headings. You can file an improper conduct for that. Keep a list of all of the shady stuff they are doing to try and exhaust you. Wait until you have a bunch of good stuff and then nail them. The form to write an Improper Conduct application is the same as the 7.1 form just tick off the box GA12 – Order another party to pay costs because of their improper conduct.
Lawyers should not be taking advantage of the fact that you are self-representing. But some lawyers will do that. You can also file a complaint against them personally with the Law Society. Here is the Code of Conduct for Lawyers in BC.
Ok, so long story short.
And that my friends is the tale of getting documents.
Hopefully you can use this information to help you all in your search.
Stay strong out there!