Dedicated School For Autistic Students Scrapped By Edmonton Public School Board
Since most Canada has prevented people from sharing news articles on Facebook, a lot of USA people tend to miss out on things like this. I’ll remind everyone that Edmonton is a part of Alberta the province that gets the most hate from the rest of the country for being conservative.
“Trustees who voted in favour of axing the school from the plan cited concerns from disability advocates and families about segregating students, a lack of consultation with families, and whether the project would be the best use of funds, given the division’s limited resources.”
I’m glad this got nixed because it was segregation masquerading as support. I’m sure it made martyr moms and dads feel like they were being ignored and thank all that’s good in the world for that. I’m autistic, I went to high school with someone that would by those same people be considered “severely” or “profoundly” autistic because he didn’t talk, stimmed frequently but you know what? He was a part of the class.
I also went to high school with kids that had cerebral palsy while being mostly blind. It was a regular high school, there was nothing special about it. That’s the way it should be. There is so much stigma around disability and the only way to combat that is with knowledge.
Segregation of any kind always ends badly much like book banning. History has taught us this much. Girls used to be segregated from boys in school, Black people used to be segregated from White people.. just to name a few examples of horrible practices that should be left well in the past.
Those parents that truly want segregation can create their own private schools and have at it. The same way Catholics have their own private schools and any other religion can start their own if it matters that much to them. Public schools are for the public and that includes disabled people.
@helenagullen
.
I’m terrified by both sides of this argument. While this school sounds like it could be a torture chamber, “inclusion,” is the Autistics’ usual torture chamber, I feel like it’s devils on both sides 😬
.
@autistics
Remote Reply
Original Comment URL
Your Profile
Why do I need to enter my profile?
This site is part of the ⁂ open social web, a network of interconnected social platforms (like Mastodon, Pixelfed, Friendica, and others). Unlike centralized social media, your account lives on a platform of your choice, and you can interact with people across different platforms.
By entering your profile, we can send you to your account where you can complete this action.
You will suffer a lot more from segregation than you will in a school with others. The school could be perfectly lovely but it breeds a Us vs. Them type mentality among people.
There is nothing wrong with putting supports in schools like extra teachers or teacher’s assistants to help, sensory friendly lighting, a therapy dog in the classroom, etc.. As it’s been shown to not only help Disabled people but the average person as well.
The school itself isn’t really the issue, if it had been a private school with private funding then it would be a choice the parents made. The problem is that it’s a public school trying to segregate the public and thus defeating its original purpose to be a school for the public.
So basically my two issues it with are segregation in general, and a public school trying to dictate who can go there like it’s some sort of exclusive club instead of a public school.