Chris Walters’ four-year-old daughter escaped three blocks from her Hamilton School last month before being discovered by the public in the middle of one of her roads, with traffic flowing around.
Walters said his daughter is autistic and nonverbal — one of several such kids in her kindergarten classroom — and has been sporadic recently, despite having an educational assistant in the classroom.
He and other parents, the Ontario Autism Coalition and three opposition parties in the province call for more support to ensure the safety of their children.
“The fact that she might not have come home that day is horrible,” Walters said in a press conference Tuesday.
“I can’t stress enough that I think the government isn’t doing enough, and I know I’m not alone…we need to receive stories like we hear, a moment of stories, and it’s impossible not to support some of our most vulnerable children.”
Kate Dudley-Logue and the Antario Autism Coalition said the lack of adequate special needs support is not unique to Hamilton. Dudley-Logue said some boards across the province are cutting positions in education assistants, with more funding and support needed from the province.
Dudley-Logue notes that it has been almost a year since the mother of a 16-year-old boy said he was alone in a feeling room. She said special education has not improved since then.
“What we received was a very clear message that students with disabilities are not important to this government,” she said.
“We continue along a path that will only lead to another tragedy. It’s just a matter of time when we lose another life, and the government can’t claim that they aren’t told. Advocacy groups, education unions, families and now the opposition are all now working together to alert on one system that is fundamentally broken.”
The latest report from the Ontario Elementary Teachers Federation says the province’s UK public school board provides an educational assistant for every 10 children with special educational needs.
Like Melissa Stevens, parents themselves are an educational assistant, and they say their children need one-on-one support.
Her seven-year-old daughter Peyton had special needs and she disappeared first when she was in senior kindergarten. It happened 14 times from that time to the end of Grade 1.
Stevens said that just this week, Payton escaped so many days that she was barely in class and the principal ended up spending a day with her, so she would be safe, it wasn’t the principal’s job.
She said the school had educational assistants, but they had been assigned to multiple children and it was unreasonable to add Payton to the case.
“I’ve explained this to the board and to the school, and I think now I need to explain it to the government – with kids like her, she needs support.”
“She needs the support of EA, and without this support, something bad will happen, it’s just a matter of time. Whether this will happen, and when is the question.”
Stevens fears that her daughter could be kidnapped, seriously injured or killed by a car when she escapes.
“I just, I need help,” she said almost tears.
A spokesman for Education Minister Paul Calandra said in a statement that the ministry will continue to work with parents and educators on the issue: “However, it is absolutely crucial that all schools have a plan to ensure students’ safety.”
Justine Teplycky wrote that Prime Minister Doug Ford’s administration has increased “annual” special education support funding, adding that the province invested nearly $4 billion a year in special education.
“We have also added 4,000 educational assistants to support teachers, parents and students with special educational needs,” Teplycky wrote.
