Dear Editor,
In the Dec. 13 edition of the Richmond News there were two interesting articles concerning Richmond schools.
One article concerned the possible closure of the school for special needs students.
The school might have to close because of lack of funding from the government.
The other article in your paper quoted a prominent B.C. Liberal leader candidate, Mike de Jong and MLA Teresa Wat stating that they are in favour of “expanding Mandarin in the public education system.”
How can we ignore our obligations to the special needs children in our community while spending more money on teaching children Mandarin?
Mandarin is not one of our official languages. If a parent thinks their child might benefit from speaking Mandarin, let them do so privately. Our priority must be to the basic needs for all of our children — not to a group that seems to think they must have their needs taken care of — even at the cost of others.
I hope that our school board and our government are aware of the priorities in our community. How can anyone be in favour of ignoring the needs of the special needs students while catering to elite groups?
Where are our Canadian standards in this issue?
Eleanor Hamilton
Richmond
