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For children with disabilities school can be a nightmare. Triggers abound, particularly for kids with conditions like autism, ADHD and anxiety. Bright lights, crowded hallways, taking turns, lining up, keeping a desk organized and navigating friendships?all the basic stuff of school life?are confusing, agitating and overwhelming for kids with special needs. School doesn?t feel safe for them. And they in turn can make school feel unsafe for their classmates.
This seems to be what led parents of two girls who attend John Wanless Junior Public School in north Toronto to sue the Toronto District School Board for failing to protect them. According to the suit, the children, who are grades one and three, have been threatened and physically harmed by a schoolmate with special needs. The parents say that their daughters were shoved, kicked, hit with a hockey stick and pinched on the buttocks. The family?s lawyer told the Globe and Mail that the parents? problem isn?t really with the child with special needs, referred to in the suit as ?Student L.? Their concern is that the school integrated Student L into a regular classroom without proper care and resources. ?Special-needs children should be accommodated,? said the family?s lawyer. ?They should be given a place. They should be taken care of. They should be integrated as much as possible. But where the needs cannot be safely accommodated, the school board should make other accommodations.? (The school board denie...