Kelly Ryan got a call from someone at General Currie elementary in Richmond saying her son, Hudson, was being registered at the school for the fall.
Not an unusual call, by any stretch, for a mom to take.
The problem is, five-year-old Hudson goes to the tiny, 40 or so-student Sea Island elementary and Ryan hadn't asked for her son to switch schools for Grade 1 next school year.
According to the school district, Hudson - who has fetal alcohol syndrome (FAS) and ADHD - will get more support at the near 500-student General Currie, which is in the family's Brighouse catchment area.
Whereas, Sea Island, which Hudson attends because of the proximity to the family's specialized daycare, apparently has "limited resources" to deal with his needs.
Ryan fully acknowledges her son has behavioural issues and that he can be aggressive due to his special needs.
But the single mom-of-two is equally aware of the acute learning support Hudson needs to succeed in mainstream education and she's adamant it's readily available at Sea Island, without the need to uproot her already delicately balanced son.
"He doesn't do well in large groups," said UBC research technician Ryan, who added she has a written diagnosis from Children's Hospital, detailing exactly what level of care Hudson needs at school.
"He gets constant reminders about personal space and boundaries and he needs full-time supervision, especially at recess, as he can go from 0-10 in a second.
"Hudson has very special needs, there's no getting away from that; but Sea Island was happy to take him last year and allow him to be part of their school.
"They were very understanding and had been doing a great job with Hudson."
Sea Island had a part-time EA (educational assistant), but that support increased soon after Hudson started last fall.
There were altercations with students throughout the school year, admitted Ryan. And more recently, there was a claim that Hudson tried to strangle another boy.
"The parents phoned the school board and said this was a safety concern," said Ryan.
"They tried to get all the other parents to a meeting together, without me, to talk about it. I don't think the meeting took place, I'm not sure.
"There were other issues at recess, with pushing and fighting. He was getting the blame for everything; but the EA witnessed it most of the time and she refuted many of the claims that were made, and it was often the other child that was to blame."
By the beginning of this month, it had all died down, according to Ryan, until she got the registration phone call from General Currie.
"I put it down to some kind of confusion and left it at that," she said.
"But later that day, I got a call from the Sea Island principal, who said that Hudson's catchment area was General Currie and there would be more resources there. But I was then asked what I would like to do? "I obviously said I'd rather he stayed where he was.
I then talked to the superintendent and tried to get some answers, but it seemed like they had made their minds up."
Ryan claims she wasn't given any reassurance of more resources for Hudson at General Currie, other than the fact there would be more EAs around the school, which need to be shared with other students requiring support.
Lynn Archer, Richmond
School District assistant superintendent, said they have to ensure Hudson's needs are being met and, with Sea Island being a very small school, there is more "depth of resources and wraparound resources" at General Currie.
"An EA is assigned to a school, not to a student," said Archer of Ryan's claims that
Hudson had a full-time EA at Sea Island.
"But we do assign our resources the best we can.
"Hudson did not have a full-time EA; there was another child at Sea Island who required support and itinerant support from the district was assigned to the school to help.
"At Sea Island, there really is only two teachers and we have to provide a safe learning environment for all students."
At General Currie, said Archer, there are "two full-time administrators and more learning resource teachers; there are simply more adults there for support."
Archer added that the family has been given an opportunity to meet with the principal at General Currie before the new school year.
No matter how the district spins it, said Ryan, she can't wrap her head around the decision and feels a vociferous group of Sea Island parents have gotten their way.
"I think this is the easier option for everyone except Hudson," said Ryan.
"I think the parents that were against us at Sea Island are getting their way and it's their voices that are being heard."
If Hudson is forced to attend General Currie, Ryan fears her son will "slip through the cracks," as he doesn't cope well with change.
"It's going to cause him a lot of anxiety and he's going to be overwhelmed. And trying to find another daycare that gives him the level of support he gets is going to be impossible."
Assuming the teachers' strike doesn't break before summer, Ryan intends her son's next school day to be Sea Island in the fall, where she says her son has made many friends.
"He has a hidden disease and people often write him off as a bad kid," said Ryan.
"But he does try his absolute hardest and needs a lot of help along the way. It's insane to take that away from him."
