Guardian pulls kids from Vancouver school, saying school staff failed to deal with bullying

The guardian of two First Nations girls with disabilities is calling out their elementary school for negligence and withholding information after one of the girls was pushed into mud and allegedly groped by another student.

The girls' older sibling and legal guardian, Ollie, has since pulled them from classes after the incident on Nov. 13.

CBC News is not sharing Ollie's last name, the names of the girls, their nation or the school to protect their identity.

The two girls came into Ollie's care last spring. The girls started at an elementary school in Vancouver in September, after being on a waitlist.

The younger sister is nine and has fetal alcohol spectrum disorder, ADHD and an intellectual disability, but is high functioning, said Ollie. The older girl is 11, and has autism and global developmental delay, cognitively functioning at the level of a five-year-old.

Ollie said there's a systemic issue and the school doesn't have enough educational assistants, but that "I feel the situation [at this school] … transcended systemic and became just negligent."

Within the first week of school, Ollie said there were signs of bullying of both girls, but particularly the 11-year-old. Ollie understood the 11-year-old would likely experience some bullying for displaying autistic behaviours. 

"This is going to be normal bullying for her, how can we teach her with her skill set and her executive functioning to advocate for herself?" said Ollie. 

Incidents progressed in the following weeks from teasing and name calling to having volleyballs thrown at her and being slapped across the face. Ollie said they weren't told about the slap by school staff. 

"She came home with red marks on her face, and we were able to use social stories and re-enactments to find out what happened," said Ollie.  

Social stories are a form of communication used with children with autism. 

Ollie reached out to the Vancouver School Board (VSB) for help and it suggested that Ollie meet with the school principal. 

Ollie was receptive to a conversation with the principal, but that changed after Ollie thought the principal was being dishonest about a more severe incident involving their 11-year-old-sister. 

"I picked her up from school and she was covered in mud," said Ollie. 

At after-school pickup, Ollie said the 11-year-old was walked out by the school principal, which was unusual. The principal told Ollie she had been playing with three boys in the field and there was no bullying.

The nine-year-old, who said she witnessed the incident, told Ollie that a student threw her sister in the mud, hit her, groped her and called her names. The nine-year-old "was so distressed after that, she walked to the principal's office and told her exactly what happened," said Ollie.

CBC News viewed email communication between Ollie, VSB and the school principal regarding the incident. Ollie outlines the situation told to them by both sisters and asks the school why this wasn't communicated to Ollie when they talked to the principal at pickup. 

The principal's email response said, "it seems there is a misunderstanding about my intentions, and I am being perceived as dishonest and unaware."

In the email, the principal said after being made aware of what happened by the youngest sister, "I followed up with staff about what happened and explained it to you during our brief encounter outside, mindful of not wanting to keep you waiting in the rain with two children." 

An email from the VSB suggests that Ollie meet with the principal to discuss a plan. 

Ollie says it's too late for that, feeling the trust was broken and has withdrawn the girls from the school. 

"There's just no way forward," said Ollie. 

School board says student safety is a priority 

The VSB said it could not accommodate CBC News's request for an interview and that it cannot discuss details regarding individual students as per the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act.

In a statement, the VSB said "Student safety is a top priority for the VSB and neither violence nor bullying is tolerated in any form within schools."

The statement said often issues can be resolved by meeting with school staff and determining a plan. The VSB said physical or sexual assault is a serious breach of the district code of conduct, and it will "take immediate actions to safeguard students and take other measures for reporting incidents as appropriate." 

"We are committed to partnering with families to ensure students receive the support they need," said the statement. 

Ollie said, leading up to the incident, the school was not transparent about plans made to deal with the bullying or didn't follow through, such as a teacher or support worker meant to meet the 11-year-old to walk her in and out of school was not there when they arrived.

"I felt in all of my communication that the responsibility was always being put on myself as a caregiver or on [the 11-year-old]," said Ollie.

Ollie said they have filed a police report about the incident. 

No data on kids leaving the school system 

Situations like these are all too common, according to Erika Cedillo, director of Public Policy and Programs at Inclusion B.C., an advocacy organization for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities. 

"Nearly 50 per cent of our calls are related to barriers in accessing an inclusive education," said Cedillo.

She said there is a lack of support across the province for students in kindergarten to Grade 12, resulting in a lack of sufficient educational assistant time, resources for the teachers or training. 

Cedillo said this results in children being excluded from participating fully in the education system, "from one day missing school, to one week, to the whole year and then to families needing or feeling forced out of the system." 

Cedillo said there is no data collected on students who are leaving school because of lack of support so there isn't a way to know the extent of the problem. 

Cedillo said Inclusion B.C. has an online resource for parents to understand the structure of the school system and roles and responsibilities. Explaining to parents what actions are being taken by school staff when there are instances of bullying is important, Cedillo said.

"Parents have expressed to us how, under the banner of privacy, they don't know if something has been done and so it feels like nothing has been done," said Cedillo.

Girls pulled from school 

Ollie has withdrawn the girls from the school and has enrolled them with the Vancouver Learning Network — an online school program within VSB — and will be homeschooling them for now. Ollie took a leave from work to care for the girls full time in July. 

"There just aren't the things in place to protect disabled students, especially not disabled First Nation students," said Ollie.

The hope is that the girls will eventually be able to go to a new school "pending that there's actual supports in place for them," said Ollie.

"I wouldn't blindly just put them back into the public school system."