16 yrs. Grade 11

Secondary School

We struggled a lot with school. One teacher told my child that her autism was a punishment from God – that is a terrible thing to tell a child! It led to permanent resentment of faith-based institutions. Another school did not know what to do after my child had a failed suicide attempt – instead of trying to find out what happened, the school tried to distance itself from the whole affair. No action was ever taken against the kids bullying my daughter. This led to a meltdown at school and a second suicide attempt. My daughter was assaulted at…

14 yrs. Grade 10

Secondary School

Somehow, my bright, well-adjusted grade 7 son began to have anxiety about going to school. We don’t know why. When he wasn’t in panic attack mode, you would think he is the most well-adjusted kid out there. Within a few months, he was completely unable to go to school at all. We quickly began to look for help. Family doctor gave us a scolding and refused to refer us to a specialist. We went to one therapist after another, spending almost $10,000 out of pocket. We went to the Ministry of Children and Families and got put on a waiting…

15 yrs. Grade 10

Secondary School

As a mother, I want to teach my son to advocate for his own health. If he truly does not feel well enough mentally or physically to go to school, I let him rest that day. I do ask him to use his words and tell me why he doesn’t want to go to school. School is a lot; life is a lot. I want my teenager to take self-care days if he needs them. He does not abuse this, and he is back to school next day, and all is good. He still maintains good grades and gets along…

8 yrs. Grade 3

Elementary School

Our son had to literally be “peeled” off me every morning and practically dragged into the school kicking and screaming. It was awful for both my son and me. The three teachers who had to drag him in every morning would kind of chuckle as if it was funny. It became a routine…”Oh, here comes Devon”…ready, set, grab, and peel. We talked to his teacher, the school counsellor, and his family doctor, and they all acted as if it was “normal” and said that he’d simply grow out of it. It was far from normal. They also didn’t see the…

10 yrs. Grade 5

Elementary School

A seven-year-old with severe ADHD fitting the classic explosive child behaviours with some defiance and work refusal witnesses his closest relative, his grandmother, die while being resuscitated; mother works in the school. He is returned to school after one week of grieving, to “keep a normal routine”, as kids just bounce back through these things. The first day of mother’s return to work, he witnesses an outpouring of sympathy towards mom. None for him. The lockdown drill happens. How would you support him?

15 yrs. Grade 9

Secondary School

My daughter started struggling with her organization in grade 5. Her male teacher would call her lazy and intimidate her to try and get her to do homework. Her best friend turned on her in grade 7, and my daughter started to show signs of anxiety and was sick a lot. In grade 8, she couldn’t go to school in the last month and only dragged herself in to graduate. In the summer of grade 8, we paid $3,000 for the psychoeducational assessment, which showed ADHD-I and anxiety, along with gifted levels of English comprehension and writing. She had low…

16 yrs. Grade 11

Secondary School

When he was just a baby, my second-born did not like crowds. At family functions, he would go to the quietest spot until he just could not take it anymore and would beg to go home. He was always anxious as a child. He began saying he was quitting school when he was 9 years old. At 11 years old, he was diagnosed with diabetes; this did not help his anxieties, as he was the only child in our school with this disease at the time. At 12, he told us he was gay. I had hoped that this would…

16 yrs. Grade 11

Secondary School

My son dislikes going to school. It started in grade 4. His teacher bullied and embarrassed him because he wasn’t comfortable performing/speaking in front of the class. Grades 5 and 6 were better due to a great teacher. Grades 7 and 8 were also pretty good. The issues started again in grade 9. The school counsellor and a few teachers made him feel something was wrong with him. Grade 10 has been the worst. Started high school. Too many people. Teachers either said he has a problem because he was rude or just didn’t care if he was there or…

14 yrs. Grade 9

Secondary School

My kid would not get out of bed for 3-4 days at a time. I was scared, terrified. We were able to get her into a youth residence to help start her mental health healing. She did very well at the in-house schooling. The program allows a maximum stay of only 3 weeks, so while it was a total blessing and introduced us to a lot of very helpful resources, it was only a reprieve, not a solution.