SCHOOL children and their teachers who show the world how kids with Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder can succeed are the winners of the 2007 Manitoba Human Rights Commitment Award.
"They work really hard to do their best and they're fabulous ambassadors helping others understand," said Bev Wahl, principal of David Livingstone Community School, which has The Bridges FASD grades 4-6 intermediate program.
Teachers in the David Livingstone Community School’s Bridges FASD program say the students are proud ambassadors helping the world understand
"We get a lot of visitors from all over the world," said Wahl. "The kids have become the leaders, talking about their classroom and needs and the adaptations that help."
She said the students, three teachers and six educational assistants deserve the recognition they will get from the award presented on International Human Rights Day. Monday marked the anniversary of the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights that stated "all human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights."
Deb Thordarson has been involved with the program for years and is glad the kids learning to live with FASD are getting some positive attention.
She said she's tired of damaging remarks from media and even school administrators.
"FAS is an excuse for bad behaviour," she heard one school staff member say.
Krupa Kotecha of Balmoral Hall won an anti-racism award.
"That's where society is," Thordarson said. "But once they see these kids and meet these children they see 'we're just the same inside our hearts,'" she said, quoting one boy she teaches.
There is a tendency in the media to hone in on the problems of FASD instead of the potential, said Thordarson. In news reports earlier this year, for instance, it seemed every arson was blamed on kids with FASD. That bad rap hurts kids with FASD who are working hard to grow beyond the limitations of their disability, she said.
"Labelling is very harmful."
Mothers who drink during pregnancy can cause a baby to have behavioural and physical disabilities, including malformed bones, muscles, vital organs and permanent brain damage. Children born with fetal alcohol spectrum disorder face challenges in the way they live, learn, work and play for the rest of their lives.
Research shows that as a child with FASD grows, a range of secondary disabilities may appear, including mental-health problems, drug and alcohol addictions and difficulty at school. The end result can be joblessness, homelessness and conflict with the law, according to the province's FASD strategy.
Thordarson knows first hand these children do a lot better with help at school and a supportive community than with shunning and shame.
"Kids are learning to be proud of who they are and are learning about their disability and why they have the challenges they do," Thordarson said.
The FASD students wrote a book called Jilly's Story: Living and Learning with FASD.
"Jilly's story was written to promote awareness of this disability," Thordarson said.
Two David Livingstone schoolchildren wrote the acceptance speech themselves and practised it, along with their table manners, for the formal luncheon.
A human rights youth award was also presented to Krupa Kotecha, a Grade 12 student. She was nominated for the Sybil Shack Memorial Manitoba Human Rights Youth Award by her teachers at Balmoral Hall for an anti-racism video and a monologue she produced.
carol.sanders@freepress.mb.ca
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