School District 48 officials had an apparent change of heart late last week and decided to allow a Squamish special-needs youngster to participate in a district-run summer school program -but only after the boy's parents had made other plans for him.
Pam Razzano, whose son Emilio, 8, is deaf, has been going back and forth with school district officials for the past few weeks in her efforts to have Emilio admitted to the Elementary Discovery Learning program for Grades 1 to 7 students at Mamquam Elementary School. The two-week program is set to wrap up today (July 15).
After initially telling her no one had applied to serve as Emilio's in-class teacher's assistant (TA) - only to later confirm his mother's claim that the two people who have served in that role during the school year had applied -a school district official told her Emilio had been excluded because the summer school program would not be a "safe environment" for her son, she said.
However, on Friday (July 8), school officials relented and told Pam Razzano that Emilio could participate, she said.
School district officials could not be reached for comment on the reasons for the change. Pam Razzano suggested that perhaps her decision to get the media involved had something to do with it.
"Now the program seems safe after the media was included and as well, the district is saying when you yell loud enough then your child can be included," she wrote in an email to The Chief. "We shouldn't have to go [to] these lengths."
On July 5, Razzano said she recognizes that not every school program is suitable for her son. However, district officials had yet to explain what aspects of the program would not be safe for him to participate in.
"I as a parent would never put him in a program that I know would cause him harm but I would think that school programs and education are not a harmful atmosphere," she wrote. "Even asking for an email for verification what they feel in the program would be unsafe for him, I receive nothing - no itinerary nor any explanation."
In a statement emailed to The Chief on July 7, Magy Odorfer, the district's principal for curriculum and professional development, wrote that while "privacy restrictions prevent us from sharing particulars about specific students," in general, student safety is the "foremost factor" when deciding whether a program is appropriate for a given student.
"This year's summer program involves extended periods of activity away from a school," Odorfer wrote. "Scheduled activities and off-site locations cannot safely accommodate all students' individual health and security needs -regardless of the amount of one-on-one support that might be provided."
Odorfer was then asked in an email why a district-hired teacher's assistant couldn't look after Emilio's needs when the students were outside the classroom. She did not answer the question directly but did write in a subsequent email, "We are continuing to be available to work with the parent to offer the student as many opportunities as we can in the summer program."
In an interview, Pam Razzano said it's her strong belief that programs run under the umbrella of the B.C. Ministry of Education should be as inclusive as they can be.
She said she thinks the real reason for excluding Emilio was that "they don't want to pay for the TA."
Faith Bodnar, executive director of the B.C. Association for Community Living (BCCLA), agreed that society in general, and public institutions more specifically, have a responsibility to be as inclusive as possible.
While most B.C. school districts have Ministry of Education-guided policies surrounding inclusiveness, there's nothing in the School Act or other legislation that requires school districts to include special-needs students, either during the school year or in summer school programs, Bodnar said.
The BCCLA is in favour of having such requirements ensconced in legislation, she said. Failing that, she suggested that the Ministry provide incentives for school districts "to take a leadership role" in making their programs fully inclusive.
At the moment, it's up to individual school boards to decide how best to incorporate special-needs students into their programs. "I would hope that they would follow good practices and be dedicated to pursue desirable outcomes for all students," Bodnar said.
Emilio and his family have been overcoming challenges since the day he was born -May 1, 2003. As an infant, he was diagnosed with hypoplastic left heart syndrome and underwent three open-heart surgeries and countless trips to the hospital for treatment. The community rallied to support several successful fundraisers to help the family meet the financial burdens brought on by Emilio's medical condition.
His deafness was diagnosed when he was 18 months old, and he also suffers from attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and moderate brain damage that resulted from a stroke that followed one of his early surgeries.
Pam Razzano, though, said her son is nonetheless still in the mainstream school system and could use the extra help provided by the summer-school program to help him continue progressing.
She said she signed Emilio up for the same program in 2010, only to be told there was no money in the budget to pay his interpreter/TA. After first suggesting that she pay the TA's wages herself, district officials finally agreed to accept Emilio into the program, but only for one-quarter of the 40 hours of instruction offered to other students, Razzano said.
"I did advise the co-ordinator that he would be back next year," she told The Chief, referring to the 2011 summer school program.
"I feel this was my mistake, allowing them to know Emilio would be applying again. It gave them a whole year to configure an action plan how not to allow disabled children to cut into their limited funds to run a great program."
After learning of officials' decision to include her son entering the second and final week of the program, Pam Razzano wrote in a letter to the district, "I am grateful that the board has recently reconsidered the possibility of children requiring TAs to participate, unfortunately I have had to make other arrangements that I cannot change for Emilio."
She added that she's ready to discuss the sequence of events that led to last week's decision in hopes of resolving any barriers to Emilio's participation in future years.
