I don’t know where to start. I do know that my daughter was left behind in the school system.
She had a major trauma happen to her in kindergarten. I let the school know. The next year in grade 1 she had significant difficulties that showed in her behavior. I realized she hated going to school and that she had a learning disability. I asked for testing to be done and I was denied because she was too young. In spite of that, we kept plugging along. I asked for extra help and we got some but not enough. In grade 2 we were having meetings every week with the school about her behaviors. She wanted to go home every day. The school wasn’t a safe place for her. I had to go part-time with my job because of having to pick her up from school all the time. They finally agreed to do a psychological educational assessment. The assessment told us a lot, but the school wasn’t willing to follow the recommendations to support her. We felt that the principal hated our daughter and us. She said it was our fault.
At the time I didn’t understand what was happening, so we tried doing only half days of school 3 days a week. It got worse. We went for help outside the school. They decided it was best to put her in a behavioral class in another school. We just wanted her out of that school because the principal was a complete bully. We moved schools hoping that she would get the extra help she needed. This never happened. She was in this class from grade 3 to grade 8 and the behaviors got worse. So bad that she refused to stay in the classroom. Lots of meetings lots of having to pick her up from school. We even went to the top of the school board level to get help. This didn’t work either. In her last year of elementary school, the police were called because she was walking the halls with scissors in her hand. It took 4 officers to take her down and put her in cuffs on both her hands and feet and be taken to the hospital for evaluation. She was taken to the mental health ward for a week and put on more medication. It was heartbreaking.
She didn’t want to go back to school after that, but we felt that we had no choice. We had to send her, or we would have the police at our door again. In grade 9 she was put into the section class. I got calls every day to pick her up because she wouldn’t stay in the classroom. Meetings after meeting they were told about all the assessments and how to help her and still nothing. She has been suspended more times than I can count. It’s the same every year. She is in grade 11 this year and we opted for online learning. That didn’t work either because they put her in regular classes. She really only has a grade 3 education, and they expect her to learn at grade level…… She wants to go back to school again and I’m the mean one for keeping her at home. I know what the outcome will be. The school never changes. That’s my story in a quick version. Way more to it but too much to tell. She is in counseling and has been for years.