The Principal might as well have said that today when I went to ask some hard questions. As you may or may not recall, A came home from school yesterday with cup hook screws. It was difficult to sleep last night let alone maintain my cool this Morning when I spoke with school administration about my concerns. While I will never send A to school in bubble-wrap, it all boiled down to lack of supervision in the classroom of which I maintained I felt was unacceptable. I toured the classroom again looking for the fire alarm A spoke of and found that it was within a child’s reach. Said fire alarm was also on a wall beside the door.
The principal, D.F., was quick to sympathize but the notorious “there are over 30 students in A’s classroom” line reared its ugly head. It was irritating to hear but better than the “we have 1.5 Special Needs Assistants for 800 students” line we usually hear from E.S., Vice Principal. I maintained that while I sympathize that teachers have to pay attention to every student, it is imperative that children with Special Needs get adequate amount of supervision and an inclusive education – there was no excuse for A to come home with scratches from other students with no written explanation or even worse, coming home with dangerous objects he found in the classroom.
“We will look into it when N.A., teacher, returns on Monday and I will contact you sometime next week.” It was the response I expected. I hate to sound pessimistic but I have a feeling the school will blame A rather than placing the blame where it truly belongs:
- At Board level (TDSB) for knowingly delaying families from receiving the supports that they deserve and are mandated by Provincial and Federal law – support that can enable the teacher with more skills to truly reach A and take pressure off
- At the Provincial level for failing to invest more in hiring qualified teachers to reduce class sizes and truly ensure that every child is reached
Children are our future; education and keeping them safe at our schools should be our priority.
