17 yrs. Grade 10
My child always has to ask for the support. My child is not able to request the help. This is part of the problem. Staff need to know the signs and act on them.
17 yrs. Grade 12
My son started having anxiety in grade 5, and as he got older it worsened. By grade 9, I was fighting with him to go to school; in grade 10, he just stopped going. I had meetings with the school. They offered a quiet room to do work and an in-home tutor. He should be in grade 12 this year, but because they only had one way to deal with this, he is now waiting to turn 18 to be allowed to get an education. We have been to the hospital because of his suicidal thoughts, only to be given…
17 yrs. Grade 12
My daughter has panic attacks about school, especially when teachers speak in a condescending tone that is intended to imply encouragement but actually just lacks understanding of what my child is struggling with. Oftentimes, the teachers don’t have other solutions or approaches to a situation other than to say, “Well, just try your best!”, and when your child is already trying their best, this feels like failure. My child, too, can be stubborn to try different approaches; for example, she initially refused audiobooks because she had always been an avid reader until PANS caused her some kind of scrambled reading…
16 yrs. Grade 11
Every day they have good intentions of going to school and doing well, until they go to bed and think all night about everything they have to do the next day. They are then too exhausted to get up in the morning; they basically freeze…fight or flight mode.
16 yrs. Grade 11
My son (now 16) has always had a difficult time in school. He was labelled early as hyper and impulsive, but he was happy and wanted to befriend everyone. This label followed him everywhere. The phone calls came so often and were so stressful that, every day at 1:30, I would turn my phone on silent because, like clockwork, they would call and complain about him, and I would stress and feel hurt, knowing that this was it for him; this was going to be his whole school experience, no matter where we moved or what we did. He was…
16 yrs. Grade 11
My son was born different. I didn’t notice how much that would be a problem until he started school. It took 6 years of headaches, tummy aches, tears, wetting his pants, purposely throwing up, uncontrollable ticks, constant errors on paper when it came to tests, constant reminders that my child was impulsive, unorganized, easily distracted, lazy, lacks effort, to be diagnosed with anxiety and possibly ADHD. We went to therapy with a child-adolescent mental health worker for another 5 years. We did really well with cognitive behavioural therapy. He was put on Concerta, and never did get a learning assignment…
16 yrs. Grade 11
My daughter has high-functioning anxiety and depression. School is the thing that triggers her anxiety the most. Every day, she feels extremely pressured by the amount of homework she receives in advanced courses. She literally feels like it is endless and that she can’t catch a break. She gets marks in the high 90s, but it’s the constant homework and pressure that makes her hate school.
15 yrs. Grade 10
Unfortunately, one paragraph would not even begin to explain the pain, anguish, and heartache our family has undergone over the last 10 years around school refusal. We are truly exhausted. Our son could read at 2 1/2 and was so excited to start JK and follow his two older sisters to “big” school. He went the first day and came home and refused to go back the next day and almost every day since, and he is now in grade 10. He was eventually asked to leave JK in October that year because “he isn’t ready for school and he…
16 yrs. Grade 11
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
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…