Montreal Planetarium issues apology following complaints from families of children with autism

Five year-old Maya McKergow and her electronic tablet, an augmentative and alternative communication device, are inseparable.

“If you take that away from her she has no way to communicate with me,” explained her mother, Janice Ayotte

According to her, she tried explaining that to Montreal Planetarium staff last Thursday, where the child and more than 40 pupils on the autism spectrum went on a field trip with Yaldei School in Montreal’s Côte-des-Neiges district.

Ayotte claims when they went inside an auditorium for a show, an employee asked her to turn the tablet off.

“I told her, ‘No, it’s my daughter’s communication device,'” she told Global News, “and she just walked away while I was speaking with her.”

Ayotte said she left the auditorium in disgust over how she alleges staff were treating other students and parents, but then saw four other parents with kids in the lobby who’d been kicked out.

One of them was Ricky Curotte and his five-year-old, Lydia Curotte, whom the father admits was boisterous because of her autism.

He said when an employee came with a flashlight though, it made matters worse.

“It triggered her basically and put her in more distress,” he explained, saying it was the second time that a Planetarium staffer warned them about being disruptive.

Curotte said they were then asked to leave.

Special education teacher Nicole Mara was forced to wait with the four parents who Yaldei School said were expelled from the show.

Mara, who brought a child to the toilet, wasn’t allowed back inside the auditorium.

“My student is not toilet-trained,” she pointed out.  “He wears a diaper and if he has to go, he has to go.”

She argues that she understands why visitors aren’t allowed back inside the auditorium once the show starts, but that allowances should be made for children with special needs.

Yaldei School said when they made the reservation they told the Planetarium that the ages 2 to 8-year-old kids had special needs.

According to them, the week before another group from the school visited without any problems, but Ayotte insists this time the children’s rights were violated.

“Our kids have a right to be in public places like any other kid,” she stressed.

Montreal Space for Life, which runs the Planetarium, has apologized and said that the situation has made them realize that they need to improve their practices.

In a statement to Global News they say that though staff has received sensitivity training, “We will go further and offer reinforced training to our people with the help of organizations such as À pas de géants (a resource centre for training on autism) who offered us their collaboration, and Kéroul, among others.”

The statement continues to say, “We can easily change some simple etiquette rules in our theaters: allowing people to exit and re-enter theaters during a show.  Allow the use of cell phones by asking people to dim the light of their phones.”

They’ve offered a full refund to the school.

However, parents say they want this to serve as a lesson to other institutions because the kids have a right to live in an inclusive society.