10 yrs. Grade 5

The worst of it started in grade 3; by grade 4, my daughter’s teacher had alienated her from her fellow classmates, and subsequently staff, due to issues with her peers. The school counsellor did nothing but make the problems worse; the principal told the teacher to send her to the office whenever there was an issue, as they believed that when she got upset it was interfering with other kids’ ability to get an education. I took her out of school when it got bad enough that she started getting stomach pains on a regular basis. Grade 5, same thing but worse: physically assaulted and verbally demoralized by other students, treated as the problem and not the victim; severe stomach pains diagnosed after multiple incidents in the ER over many months as impacted bowels due to anxiety. As issues continued at school, numerous meetings between staff, her parents, and our counselling team resulted in nothing but smoke and mirrors from the school. She began self-harming to try and manage the immense stress caused from school. In her words, she said the pain from cutting herself helped distract her from what was happening at school. In early January, she was officially diagnosed with ADHD, ODD, and multiple anxiety disorders. In spite of knowing this, knowing she had begun medication and would take time to find dosage and balance, teacher and principal ended up saying they wanted her removed from the classroom. I refused, And, after my daughter began to say she wanted to kill herself, I pulled her from school for her own safety in February due to the school’s inability to get on board with the IEP and recommendations by counselling team and psychologist.