Parents protest against the change of vocation at the next start of a small school in Lanaudière which has been welcoming young people with great language difficulties for 25 years. Services to students will be offered closer to their homes, argues the school service center.
For Valérie Lemire, learning that her son was going to attend primary school in Grand-Pré was like winning “the jackpot”. At almost 5 years old, Jérôme still did not speak. It was sign language that allowed adults to communicate with him.
His entry to the small school of Saint-Jacques, in Lanaudière, had the effect of a balm in his life and that of his parents.
“All the services are grouped together at the school, which allows him to have exceptional follow-ups. I no longer have to go to the rehabilitation center two or three times a week,” explains Ms.me The sights.
The school of Grand-Pré welcomes this year about sixty pupils divided into six classes. The language classes in the territory of the school service center meet there. These are children with severe impairment in terms of verbal expression and moderate to severe impairment in verbal comprehension.
The Samares school service center explains that it is “reorganizing” services, in particular in order to offer them “as close as possible to the place of residence of the student”, writes its spokesperson Maude Jutras.
“The same services will be offered to students, and even more,” she continues. The integration of students in so-called regular schools will also allow them to remain in the same school until the end of their primary education, it is also explained. At Grand-Pré school, students must leave the establishment when they blow out their tenth birthday.
This explanation does not convince Nadia Ménard, president of the school’s governing board.
“We are told not to let [les élèves] in a glass bubble. I am a psychoeducator by training, I agree with that. However, we must have the means to match our ambitions. If you integrate, you have to have the context and the staff so that it happens harmoniously,” she says.
“We have a model that works. Why put the ax in there? asks the one whose daughter Jeanne, 7, attends school.
“A purely mathematical calculation”
In the school’s educational project, we read that “it is the union [des] expertise that helps advance [les] students. The stability of the staff is a favorable factor for this collaboration”.
At the Syndicat de l’enseignement de Lanaudière, we also note that it is a school that is doing well. Teachers, speech therapists, orthopedagogues, special educators, attendants for disabled students, psychologists and occupational therapists together form a real “expertise” with these students.
“All the students who pass through the classes evolve, the teachers know them, the staff know them and they are able to intervene with them with the appropriate tone,” says Mathieu Lessard, president of this union.
The staff who work at the Grand-Pré school, he says, do not see why it is appropriate to change the current formula.
It cannot be done and thought for the good of our students. It looks more like a purely mathematical calculation.
Mathieu Lessard, President of the Lanaudière Education Union
The school service center explains that 43 students are affected by this reorganization, since 16 of them had to leave for another school at the start of the next school year.
The president of the governing board notes for her part that 21 students are in their first year of attendance and will have to change schools again in September.
Nadia Ménard says that she “knocks on all doors” since she learned of the service center’s decision. “I made a complaint to the student ombudsman. It’s been three months, I still haven’t heard from her,” she said. She complains that the service center is trying to “discredit” her.
“They do not respond to our fears, to our legitimate questions. We talk about the bullying and exclusion of our children, who have experienced this a lot in kindergarten, ”says Ms.me Menard.
Valérie Lemire remembers her son’s year in kindergarten all too well. When Jerome couldn’t make himself understood, he made himself vomit.
Now 9 years old, he still doesn’t write or read, but is doing well. ” We hope that he will be able to read and write one day. It’s amazing how much he’s improved since he’s been at that school,” said M.me The sights.
If the school service center upholds its decision, she explains that she will go back to driving for several hours each week so that Jérôme can have rehabilitation services.
“I will not let my son go,” says Valérie Lemire.