VERNON, B.C. – Landen Heggs wants to grow up and become a police officer.
The 9-year-old believes it will be a fun job, but knows it will take good grades: that’s where he becomes discouraged.
Landen is in grade 4, but struggles to read at just a grade 2 level. Regular class homework is often not assigned by his teacher, according to his family, as it’s deemed too difficult for his current comprehension level.
“That’s why I’m advocating to hold him back, let him re-do his grade 4,” says Shelley Beale, his grandmother and legal guardian, who has been attempting to advocate for the struggling student for more than a year.
But his Vernon school, Ellison Elementary, has denied his family’s request.
“They flat out refused,” says Beale.
A spokesperson for the Vernon School District refused interview but says the family has yet to follow the appeal process to take the matter to the Superintendent, something Beale says she had no idea was available to her when the message was conveyed by Global News.
Beale says promoting struggling students like Landen are setting them up for failure.
“I think it’s the scariest thing for me because they get into grade 8, they get behind, then they get behind in grade 10 and then they drop out,” she says.
Landen isn’t sure what being held back would look like but believes he’d have a better chance of learning how to read and do math if he could do grade 4 all over again.
The student has not been offered a learning abilities assessment but has not been identified as having recognizable learning challenges.
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His family has been told he’s been put on the waiting list for a summer reading program.
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