Teachers critical of separate buildings for special needs students as outdated move to segregation - Teachers say the promise of "model" schools for special-needs students would turn the clock back 20 years to the days of forced segregation, while advocates for some of those children say they desperately need a school that caters to their needs.

The Learning Disabilities Association of Vancouver said it is pleased Education Minister Shirley Bond is proposing "best practices" provincial schools to provide more choice in public education, adding it has been working on a similar plan in conjunction with the Vancouver school board for a year.

Executive director Diane Sugars said learning-disabled students need a school that addresses their needs six hours a day, five days a week -- rather than the one or two hours a week of specialized instruction offered in regular public schools.

Children with learning disabilities are as capable as other students but often struggle in conventional school settings.

Sugars said integration, a cornerstone of public education for 20 years, doesn't always work for them. "This would be for those children who aren't making it in the public school system ... the ones the teachers are having the most difficulty with," she said in an interview Thursday.

But the B.C. Teachers' Federation and the provincial NDP said they vehemently oppose the idea, which was floated this week in the throne speech.

Although the speech did not specify what type of provincial schools would be created, Bond suggested in an interview with The Vancouver Sun they could serve autistic students or first nations children.

BCTF president Jinny Sims described it as a dangerous proposal. "I'm very choked about this," she said in an interview. "This move towards segregated schools rings alarm bells."

Although the minister proposes schools of choice, Sims warned that could lead to segregation because fewer and fewer special-needs services would be available in regular schools. "There will be no choice at the end of the day," she added.

Public schools should be a microcosm of society, welcoming all types of children, she said, adding that "magic happens" when all students share and learn together. To help special-needs students, the government should provide adequate resources in existing schools, she said.

David Cubberley, the NDP education critic, said he was astounded by the Liberal plan, adding that inclusive education would work for all students if the ministry would provide adequate funding.

Sims said she also opposes separate schools for first nations children, but Cubberley noted such schools already exist on reserves and might be appropriate in those circumstances.

Ann Anderson, a young Delta woman with fetal alcohol syndrome, said she strongly supports the idea of special schools, based on her experience in the public system, where she said teachers didn't understand her challenges.

They questioned why she could grasp a lesson one day but not the next, recalled Anderson, who left school in 1999 without graduating.

"They thought I was being lazy or not caring what I was doing," she said in an interview. "But that wasn't it. It's just the way my brain functions." Michael Lewis of the B.C. Autism Society said he would rather see inclusive schools with adequate supports. "Putting people with disabilities together -- what does that really accomplish that can't be accomplished in a regular public school?"

In a landmark decision in 2005, the B.C. Human Rights Tribunal ordered the province to provide full education to severely learning-disabled students in public schools or pay for them to attend private schools. The province appealed the ruling but the appeal has not been heard.

© The Vancouver Sun 2007
- Janet
Steffenhagen, Vancouver Sun-Published: Friday, February 16, 2007