Like many parents of students with special needs, Véronique Lacombe says she is currently “torn”: even if she deplores the devastating effects that closing schools risks having for her two autistic boys, she still supports the teachers’ strike and presses the government to allow a rapid return to class.
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M’s daily lifeme Lacombe, who lives in Laval, has been completely upset since the outbreak of the unlimited general strike of the Autonomous Education Federation on November 23.
Every day she has to drive her two boys, aged 9 and 12, to their grandparents in Montreal or Terrebonne, which considerably lengthens the working days that she cannot do at home.
The family rushes into the car around 6:45 a.m., returning around 6:15 p.m. each day. In this context, it is impossible to continue school learning at home, indicates Mme Lacombe. “It’s not that we don’t want to, but we can’t. They are in the process of regressing,” she says.
- Listen to the interview with Sylvain Martel, strategic advisor and spokesperson for the Regroupement des committees de parents nationaux du Québec via QUB radio :
A school year in danger
The delays to be made up will be particularly important for his eldest, who attends a specialized class.
The start of the school year had not been easy for him. Anxious, the boy had difficulty adapting to his new routine and refused, several mornings, to get up to go to school.
“We finally managed to overcome that, but it’s going to have to start again. When he returns to school, there will also be a good three weeks of adjustment for him which will make him more fragile in terms of learning. He was already late, so we really fear for his school year,” says M.me Lacombe, who fears a domino effect with entry into secondary school next year.
A “collective effort” on the part of parents
Like several other parents she meets, Mme Lacombe nevertheless supported the strike called by the teachers.
“I don’t see what else the teachers could do to make things happen,” she said. It’s a collective effort to make on the part of parents.”
As the mother of two autistic students who has been involved in the school network for years, she has a front-row seat to witness the lack of services and dysfunctions in the school network.
Her 9-year-old son does not have access to all the hours of individual support planned for him in class, because the special educator must help other students, says Mme Lacombe.
“There are many parents of children with challenges who feel like me. We are torn. We support the teachers, we also want better services, but we also see that for our children, the more the strike progresses, the more difficult it will be to recover.”
Véronique Lacombe is also pressing the Legault government to reach an agreement.
“In the middle of a pandemic, it felt like getting kids back to school was more important than now. Currently, we do not feel the urgency to act. This has to be resolved.”
