Parents of a child with autism in Toronto have decided to take him out of his current school and move him after he came home apparently distressed after an educational assistant cut his hair.
“We found that he was so aggressive — and traumatized,” his mother Sara Zahan told Global News. “Basically, he was under a lot of stress, and he was showing a lot of aggressive behavior.”
It reduced his mother to tears.
Zahan’s grade 4 son is non-verbal with autism, which includes sensitivity to certain things. She said that includes having his hair cut and an aversion to the sound of scissors.
At home, his parents try and cut his hair while he is asleep or work together to keep him safe during the process, so they say they were shocked to find his school had cut his hair without any prior permission.
“I am frustrated in every state, and I am discussing my story with the media because I don’t want this thing to happen to any other kids, any other kind of family,” said his father, Muksatur Rahman.
In a statement sent to Global News, the Toronto District School Board (TDSB) said that on April 4 the boy was upset because there was something red and sticky in his hair. He kept moving the hand of an educational assistant to his head to show them where it was, according to the board.
“The EA, hoping to make him feel better, trimmed a small portion of his hair to remove the substance,” a TDSB spokesperson said.
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“Despite the best of intentions, this should not have happened without first checking with a parent.”
Both Rahman and Zahan are frustrated and upset at how the process unfolded. They say they are moving their son out of George Webster Elementary School in Scarborough as a result.
“Definitely the staff needs more training and that’s why we are (talking) to the media (because) that every parent should know and the system should be more focused on the individual needs of the kids with autism,” Rahman said.
His parents said the haircut had traumatized him and made him feel unsafe.
TDSB said the educational assistant apologized to the family is on home assignment while an investigation takes place.
“In the meantime, we are continuing to support the student and his family in anyway we can,” TDSB said.
— With files from Global News’ Brittany Rosen
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