Today’s guest author is Chantelle D Hyde. With a background in Business and Education, Chantelle now advocates for Disability Supports and Human Rights. Always proud of her accomplished adult son, Eric, she is delighted daily, caring for her non-verbal autistic daughter Lily with her wonderful husband Sheldon.
With the help of Silas Brown of Global News, we are finally able to tell our story, and to warn other parents about what happened to our non-verbal, autistic daughter Lily, at her old school.
Another mother witnessed our daughter screaming and slamming her hands on the window of a door to a small room, while an adult who worked with her, forcibly held the door shut with their hands, pulling with their full body weight, as another special needs child sat beside them watching. At the developmental age of a 3 year old, this traumatizing practice led to mass regression, and severe aggression in our daughter, to the point where she wouldn’t do anything at all, and trusted no one. After a district investigation, we found out they are allowed to do this! We were forced by the district who withheld this from us to move away to another district in attempting to keep her safe, but are still fearful for so many children as this is somehow an accepted practice according to the policies of the New Brunswick Ministry of Education.
This traumatizing, inhumane seclusion room practice is being used in New Brunswick, throughout Canada and the US, and around the world. I can’t sleep at night knowing this is happening to so many children. So as difficult as this was to do, I had to tell our story. I pray that parents of children with special needs, or other difficulties at school really listen, and demand informed answers about what is happening with their children at school. We have no idea how many times over the last four years this happened to our sweet baby girl. Thank God for the mother, and now friend of mine who found me and helped to get her out of that situation.
Thank you for the help of Chuck Chiasson, our Member of the Legislative Assembly (MLA) in our previous town, for his support, and the hard work he has put into being sure our story could be told, and the steps he’s taken so far to call for an end to this practice. If you are in this situation, please contact your local government representative, and The Human Rights Commission to file a complaint immediately. The Human Rights Commission has confirmed that there are several aspects of this situation that go against their legislation. Locking children in rooms in school IS a human rights violation in Canada, and New Brunswick! Even if you are getting nowhere with your district, school board, and Ministry of Education, the Human Rights Commission may be able to help!
If you are in New Brunswick, please find me, Chantelle D Hyde on Facebook.
There is not one moment of Lily’s life that we would have to do this to her to control the situation. Our education systems need to educate themselves on the risks involved when making decisions to allow this to take place. They have a responsibility to provide the resources that our support workers and teachers need to be able to SAFELY provide an inclusive education for ALL children.
Please Share our story and help us put an end to children being traumatized at school. Thank you!
