18 yrs.

Secondary School

My daughter’s story is really long. I will try to shorten it up. Her struggle with anxiety has been since birth but really came out during sophomore year in high school. When we first approached the school, they immediately looked at her grades and said she’d be fine. She didn’t need a 504 for her GAD [Generalized Anxiety Disorder] or major depressive disorder. Her school refusal grew. IOP and PHP programs took her away from school, and her mental health issues grew. After the first day of senior year, she was hospitalized for suicidal ideation. When asked if my daughter…

17 yrs. Grade 11

Secondary School

My child had low-key anxiety, but then got suddenly sicker with a whole bunch of things. She had daily panic attacks at school. She was told she was disruptive, and she had to leave the class. In reality, she had her head down on her desk and her breathing was loud. Making her leave class put her more on edge; this made the attacks more frequent. Peers ignored her; this also increased the attacks. In one instance, she was dragged across a hall in front of the school because she was panicking in the corner. She was asked to take…

17 yrs. Grade 11

Secondary School

I have struggled with a couple of my daughters – it is heartbreaking and makes you feel sad and mean when you start pushing them to go. When you try to make changes to fix the problem, you need to be strong enough to advocate for your child against a system that is not flexible.

7 yrs. Grade 2

Elementary School

I would love to tell my whole story, but I feel it’s too long and honestly still so emotional of an experience to retell in full. I will share that I followed my gut and was right that my son had learning disabilities and wasn’t just misbehaved. I will say that being told your child will “get over it” or just needs to settle in, when you knew the problem was bigger, was exhausting. Lastly, I will share that, when a child doesn’t want to go to the park, you might think “oh why?” and ask questions. Did something happen…

11 yrs. Grade 5

Elementary School

My son’s class of 25 is currently in a music/food prep kitchen, which was quickly converted due to massive school population growth. The room is crowded, and the acoustics make the room so loud, even noise-cancelling headphones don’t help him. They didn’t have coat hooks and needed to use bins on the floor until January. How can we expect students to feel valued and safe at school when they’re crammed into makeshift rooms? Funding needs to be increased so school overcrowding doesn’t get worse.

13 yrs. Grade 8

Elementary School

My son had a psychotic episode two weeks before his 12th birthday. It’s been almost two years, and his mental health recovery has been slow. The first day of grade 7, he curled up in a ball on the floor outside the office, with his hood pulled over his head. People and other kids were staring at him. An Educational Assistant (EA) came over and demanded he remove his hood because it violates school policy. I informed her he was unwell and not coping. Removing the hood would cause further stress. She looked at me and said, “Oh. This is…

18 yrs. Grade 12

Secondary School

My son experienced an existential crisis after his grandfather’s death. Wrapped up in my own grief, I did not see his struggle. He became disassociated and disengaged from school and didn’t want to go. It was a classroom teacher who asked me what was going on with him, because when he was at school, he was shut down.

16 yrs. Grade 11

Secondary School

When my children were four and eight, their father decided to absent himself from their lives on a semi-permanent basis, which has increased over the last twelve years to the point of a visit two or three times a year for a meal. Our home caught fire, with me home alone, a month after he left. He bankrupted our family four months later, leaving the children and me homeless and me without a job or money. My family lived a day’s drive away, and I couldn’t leave the County due to legal constraints. The children remember all of this. We…

18 yrs. Grade 12

Secondary School

Our daughter struggled with school from grade 2 onward. Every year brought new challenges. Her anxiety grew into anorexia and depression in grade 8. Her circle of friends dwindled as she withdrew into herself. Once into high school, she fought hard to find a place within social groups to feel as if she belonged. She bounced from peer group to peer group, experimenting with drinking and weed. As a parent, it was terrifying. We had psychiatric help all the way through, but we never could break through her low self-confidence. I truly believe this is a vital piece of her…

15 yrs. Grade 10

Secondary School

The school has failed us on so many levels. They actually lost my daughter’s file that included all the psychological assessments and family court orders, etc. It is exhausting, and I’m starting to feel that school officials themselves are bullies.