AODA Alliance
ACCESSIBILITY FOR ONTARIANS WITH DISABILITIES ACT ALLIANCE
NEWS RELEASE – FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Devastating Death of Vulnerable Student with Disability at School Reinforces Urgent Need for Strong Provincial Oversight of School Boards’ Safeguards for a Third of a Million Students with Disabilities
May 31, 2024 Toronto: The as-yet unexplained death of a vulnerable student with a rare disability in a Trenton high school two weeks ago, as reported by City TV news, has shocked Ontarians (See City News report, below). As the facts giving rise to this fatality are officially investigated, important questions need answers now about the protracted failure of the Ontario Government and its Ministry of Education to set and enforce much-needed standards to protect safety and accessibility for one third of a million students with disabilities in Ontario-funded schools.
“The Ford Government is still sitting on detailed recommendations it received almost two and a half years ago on what it needs to do to set and enforce long-overdue standards to safeguard safety and accessibility for students with disabilities in Ontario schools,” said David Lepofsky, who chairs the non-partisan Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act Alliance which advocates for disability accessibility in Ontario. “Despite the disability community’s pleas, the Ford Government has not enacted the promised Education Accessibility Standard, even though it received detailed recommendations on it from a Government-appointed committee of experts in January of 2022.”
The K-12 Education Standards Development Committee of which David Lepofsky was a member, made specific recommendations calling for standards on when a school board can use isolation or sensory rooms. It revealed that as of January 2022, the Ontario Government had no policy on this, and collected no data from school boards on when these are used. By abdicating its provincial responsibility, the Government left it to each of 72 school boards and all their employees to make up their own rules, or do whatever they wished. The K-12 Education Standards Development Committee’s final report included the following:
“Physical restraints and seclusion
Parents/guardians report that physical restraints and seclusion continue to be used in schools to manage the behaviour of students with disabilities. Seclusion can include the use of a sensory room or calming room in a disciplinary manner, rather than as a pro-active approach. It was confirmed by Ministry of Education staff that “The ministry does not have a policy on the use of isolation/seclusion rooms or the use of restraints. Decisions related to the use of time-out (seclusion/isolation) rooms and restraints are made at the board level; no data is collected regarding the use of time-out (seclusion/isolation) rooms or restraints at a provincial level.” The following recommendations address the need for a ministry policy.
- It is recommended that the Ministry of Education should establish a policy with strict criteria regarding the use of seclusion and physical restraints for students with disabilities, which must include,
(a) criteria that must be met for the use of seclusion or physical restraints to be authorized. Calming or sensory room may be appropriately used as a self-regulation strategy and should not be used as a punishment, or when adequate supports are not available.
(b) mandatory written notification of the parents/ guardians of pupils who are subjected to the use of seclusion or physical restraints; and
(c) mandatory reporting to the school board and minister on the use of seclusion and physical restraints in schools. Each school board shall publicly report annually on how many instances it has restrained or secluded any students with disabilities and shall provide annual anonymized aggregate data on this to the ministry. The ministry shall annually make public the board by board number of such instances.
Timeline: six months”
Since it received the K-12 Education Standards Development Committees final report in January 2022, the Ford Government has not enacted the promised Education Accessibility Standard. It has not announced any new measures in response to any of the recommendations in that report. That report was the result of the most exhaustive review of Ontario’s K-12 education system from the perspective of students with disabilities in our lifetime.
“Ontario’s schools, like the rest of our society, are far behind reaching the mandatory goal of becoming accessible to people with disabilities by 2025, the deadline which the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act imposes,” said Lepofsky. “Last June, the Ford Government was told that Ontario is facing an accessibility crisis by Rich Donovan, whom Ford hand-picked to conduct a mandatory review of Ontario’s progress towards becoming disability-accessible. Since then, the Ford Government has continued to sit on its hands, rather than taking the urgent action for which so many have called.”
Contact: AODA Alliance Chair David Lepofsky, aodafeedback@gmail.com
Twitter: @aodaalliance
For more background, check out:
- The K-12 Education Standards Development Committee final report.
- The AODA Alliance website’s education page, which documents its 15 year long battle to tear down safety and accessibility barriers in Ontario schools, and
- A captioned online video that provides a roadmap for an accessible school system in Ontario.
City News May 30, 2024
Originally posted at https://toronto.citynews.ca/2024/05/30/vulnerable-boy-dies-after-allegedly-being-left-alone-in-room-at-ontario-school/
Vulnerable boy dies after allegedly being left alone in room at Ontario school
The 16 year old’s mother says her son had special needs and warned the school he could not be left alone because he suffered seizures.
By Cynthia Mulligan and Meredith Bond
An Ontario mother is devastated after her 16-year-old son with special needs was found unresponsive and alone at his school two weeks ago, and later pronounced dead.
Brenda Davis, whose son Landyn had Dravet Syndrome, is looking for answers on why no one was allegedly with him. She’s left wondering whether he would still be alive if someone had been.
Dravet Syndrome is a rare type of epilepsy that causes seizures.
Landyn was in Grade 10 at Trenton Public High School. He was found unresponsive in a private room, known as a sensory room, on May 14.
“All we know at this stage is that Landyn was left unattended in a room for some time, and he was found dead at the end of the day by teachers,” said lawyer Josh Nisker, who is representing Davis.
It’s unclear how long Landyn had allegedly been left unattended, Nisker said. “It is my understanding he was found at the end of the day to be woken up to get on the bus to go home. He was found unresponsive and his body was cold.”
Nisker explained that prior to the incident, Davis had told the school that Landyn couldn’t be left alone, especially if he was napping, as sleep was often a trigger for his seizures.
Due to his condition, Davis slept in the same room as her son every night. “She would either sleep in a bed with him or sleep on the floor on a mattress to be with him at night to ensure that he woke up every day safely and happy,” said Nisker.
The police and the coroner are investigating, according to Nisker, but he said in incidents like these, sometimes it takes legal action to get answers.
“The school board has not been forthcoming with the family,” he said. “And the hope is that through this process, we do get answers and ensure that like this never happens again.”
Davis was too distraught to speak with CityNews, but described her devastation on social media: “Never in a million years would I think they would close the door with him in a room like that, and not have eyes and ears on my boy.”
In a statement to CityNews, the Hastings and Prince Edward County School Board said, as with any tragic event, a “comprehensive review of procedures and processes is underway.”
A spokesperson for the board would not comment on the protocol involving students with special needs and the sensory room, along with whether these students were allowed to be left alone.
“The family is grieving, as are students, staff and the greater school community. Our hearts go out to everyone affected during this difficult time,” continued the statement.
In a statement, Minister of Education Stephen Lecce said the loss of a child is “an unspeakable tragedy.”
“We extend our deepest condolences to the family and friends of the Trenton High School student who passed away and to the entire Hasting and Prince Edward District School Board community.”
Lecce also said the police and school board have launched an investigation into the incident. “I know all parties will work together to ensure this tragedy does not occur again,” the statement continued.
The Ontario Autism Coalition has repeatedly called for more funding in schools, adding incidents affecting children with disabilities are often due to chronic underfunding.
“We’ve been trying to sound the alarm bells with the government for a number of years now about the lack of safety in schools for children with special needs,” said Kate Dudley-Logue, vice-president of community outreach at the Ontario Autism Coalition. “There is a serious lack of resources. […] kids are in danger on a daily basis.”
Nisker said as part of the family’s case, they will be looking into a lack of resources led to this incident as well. “Staffing might certainly be a component of this, but ultimately it’s a claim of negligence, negligence being that the teachers, educational assistants and administrators did not meet the standard of reasonable educators … to ensure that this child who was entrusted to their care was provided for, supervised, treated with dignity and respect,” he explained.
Nisker tells CityNews he has dealt with other personal injury cases involving children at schools, but nothing like this. “It’s a tragic case. It’s a parent’s worst nightmare.”
A fundraiser has been started to help his mother with funeral costs. It describes Landyn as happy-go-lucky, a child who often gave his mother bouquets of dandelions and loved to sing to his classmates.
“Landyn was a son, a brother, a nephew, a classmate,” the fundraiser dedication states. “He was filled to the brim with goodness, light, kindness, singing songs and picking flowers.”