Guardian pulls kids from Vancouver school, saying school staff failed to deal with bullying
CBC
The guardian of two First Nations girls with disabilities is calling out their elementary school for negligence and withholding information after one of the girls was pushed into mud and allegedly groped by another student.
The girls' older sibling and legal guardian, Ollie, has since pulled them from classes after the incident on Nov. 13.
CBC News is not sharing Ollie's last name, the names of the girls, their nation or the school to protect their identity.
The two girls came into Ollie's care last spring. The girls started at an elementary school in Vancouver in September, after being on a waitlist.
The younger sister is nine and has fetal alcohol spectrum disorder, ADHD and an intellectual disability, but is high functioning, said Ollie. The older girl is 11, and has autism and global developmental delay, cognitively functioning at the level of a five-year-old.
Ollie said there's a systemic issue and the school doesn't have enough educational assistants, but that "I feel the situation [at this school] … transcended systemic and became just negligent."
Within the first week of school, Ollie said there were signs of bullying of both girls, but particularly the 11-year-old. Ollie understood the 11-year-old would likely experience some bullying for displaying autistic behaviours.
"This is going to be normal bullying for her, how can we teach her with her skill set and her executive functioning to advocate for herself?" said Ollie.
Incidents progressed in the following weeks from teasing and name calling to having volleyballs thrown at her and being slapped across the face. Ollie said they weren't told about the slap by school staff.
"She came home with red marks on her face, and we were able to use social stories and re-enactments to find out what happened," said Ollie.
Social stories are a form of communication used with children with autism.
Ollie reached out to the Vancouver School Board (VSB) for help and it suggested that Ollie meet with the school principal.
Ollie was receptive to a conversation with the principal, but that changed after Ollie thought the principal was being dishonest about a more severe incident involving their 11-year-old-sister.
"I picked her up from school and she was covered in mud," said Ollie.
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