Brandon parents to take legal action against school division

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 07/09/2020 (2091 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A Brandon couple is prepared to take legal action against their local school division and the province, saying their son with Down syndrome is facing discrimination under Manitoba’s back-to-school plans as students prepare to head back on Tuesday. 

Bruce Strang and Nancy Hennen’s 15-year-old son, Sean, has an immunocompromised condition for which he receives weekly treatments.

Prior to COVID-19, Sean went to high school within the Brandon School Division where he had a designated education assistant assigned to him at all times, but the division has denied Strang and Hennen’s multiple requests for an EA this fall.

“It’s a blatant and complete disregard for any child with a disability,” said Strang, a history professor at Brandon University, who began writing letters to the school board along with his wife in early July.

“We’ve been forced to become advocates when we really shouldn’t have to be fighting this ridiculous battle for our child.”

Copies of email exchanges shared with the Free Press show the parents’ repeated attempts to reach out to several school division members, as well as individual letters to the Manitoba ministers of education, families and health.

At first, the parents began asking the school division about personal protective equipment and protocols for staff and students’ return to school, in a letter dated July 3.

Assistant superintendent Elaine McFadzen replied by stating they’re working with the government and Public Health to create protocols for schools in Brandon. She asked the parents to stand by for further details until at least Aug. 1, when a course of action could be determined based on government instructions.

McFadzen’s email, however, did not mention anything about personal protective equipment. Neither did it mention specifics for students with disabilities.

“And that really scared me,” Hennen said in an interview Monday, who replied to McFadzen with concerns about waiting for government action to create protocols for children with disabilities, also expressing anxiety about the lack of time to procure PPE before school begins.

“This is not a question of if they are exposed to it, it won’t be too bad,” she wrote. “It will be a question of life or death for children with disabilities.”

Hennen then requested a meeting with the board, which McFadzen said couldn’t happen until August since she’d be “away for a few weeks.”

Several exchanges later — including an email where McFadzen said the division would “work collaboratively” with parents to accommodate special-needs students — a meeting between Hennen, Strang and the Brandon School Division was arranged.

“But every single solution we provided to them was completely shot down,” said Strang, adding that four other families were also present at the Aug. 20 meeting. “It was either that they were going to wait for more instructions or they didn’t know what was happening. And this was after they told us the government had already given them plans and guides to refer to.

“What they were adamant about though was education assistants. They weren’t willing to budge on that at all.”

After the “unfruitful” meeting, the division did not provide any further details in writing to the parents, asking them to look at publicly available documents about pandemic reopening plans if they had any further concerns.

The parents then turned to writing several letters to the provincial government — none of which received a direct reply from Manitoba officials, except for automated emails acknowledging the departments of education, families and health had received them.

Brandon’s school division did not respond to requests for comment made on Monday.

The provincial government declined direct questions from the Free Press. In a statement, a spokesperson wrote on behalf of Manitoba’s cabinet ministers:

“The province recognizes the education system needs to be ready to deal with today’s pandemic reality as students and staff return to the classroom, and the government is delivering the financial support to help school divisions meet that need. School Divisions, along with the departments of Education and Families, continue to work to address the challenges that special needs students will face during a COVID-19 school year. The province will be in touch with this family in the coming days to work through some of the challenges that they face in ensuring their child receives a quality education.”

But Hennen and Strang remain worried. In fact, they’ve decided not to send their 13-year-old son Marc to school either because of possible contraction of COVID-19.

“This whole thing’s been like running from one brick wall after another,” said Hennen, also an instructor at Brandon University, who worries she won’t be able to care for her son or provide full-time support to him as she heads back to work.

The province could face a potential human rights violation under Manitoba’s Human Rights Code, which mandates reasonable accommodation for those with special needs and disabilities.

Temur.Durrani@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @temurdur