WATCH: Maureen Cayer says her 13-year-old son is not getting the proper support he needs from the school board resulting in a very stressful school experience. Angie Seth reports.
TORONTO – When 13-year-old Joshua goes to school in Mississauga, it is anything but a comfortable experience.
Joshua’s mother Maureen Cayer said her son has being singled out at school due to his illness for the past five years. She said she regularly gets phone calls from his school asking her to pick her up son or to voluntarily keep him at home and he has been suspended several times for his outbursts.
Cayer alleges her son has also been put under restraint and the police have been called to his school on more than one occasion by the school.
“He has another outburst and they called Peel Police. I don’t know the reasoning behind it. When I got to the school he was fine, but he was pacing back and forth like a caged animal which he does when his anxiety is up,” she said.
Joshua Cayer suffers from tourette syndrome, ADHD, OCD, mODD, a speech language delay, severe articulation disorder, a learning disability, and severe rage.
So daily support is crucial for him in order to ensure he can safely get through his daily routine, his mother said.
During an outburst, Joshua has been known to get physically and verbally violent.
“He will swear at people, call them names, which as his anxiety elevates is one of his ticks. He could spit, hit. It is quite typical. These are one of his ticks and when he gets elevated they present,” Maureen Cayer said in an interview.
Joshua is currently in Grade 8, but intellectually he is closer to a grade 2 student. He has been at the same school for the past eight years.
Cayer said she works with her son at home everyday to help him get through the day with as few outbursts as possible.
But she does not feel Joshua is getting the support he needs at school. She has had several meetings with the Dufferin Peel District School Board, but said little progress has been made.
“Last year in December they did a major restraint on him. From that time, unfortunately he has gone back to soiling in his underwear. Through the summer we had worked very hard on it because he had gotten to the point that he had to wear pull ups almost all day. Through the summer we had gotten him out of them. He had been doing so much better. He wasn’t doing it by the end of the summer. He goes back to school and it started again,” Cayer said.
The Dufferin Peel School Board wouldn’t comment directly on Cayer’s case due to privacy reasons.
The board did however issue a statement regarding their policy and protocol when it comes to providing support to students with special needs.
“Our practice is to provide a spectrum of programs and services to support all students, including students with differing abilities. When student needs come to our attention, we look at them on a case by case basis. We deploy a wide range of supports provided through school, family of schools and board teams as appropriate. Our goal is always to provide the appropriate programs and services to best support the student and family based on the student’s needs.”
But Cayer maintains her son’s needs are not being met.
“Help him cope with it. Provide him with extra coping techniques different than the ones he has learned. Or continue to use what he has learned and go forward with them. I’ve asked for the safety group to come in for the school board and come up with a safety plan. I’ve asked for numerous team meetings and things have just progressively got worse,” Cayer says.
In September Joshua will be starting High School. His mother says she is looking forward to the change and has already been working with the new school to ensure an easy transition for him
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