May 18, 2017, (Canada) Global News: Calls for more funding following report on violent incidents in schools involving special-needs students http://globalnews.ca/news/3460393/calls-for-more-funding-following-report-on-violent-incidents-in-schools-involving-special-needs-students/ Dione Costanzo’s son has autism and through the help of his aide, he has been attending school alongside his peers for several years. Costanzo says the same specially-trained experts who support her son should be made available to all special-needs kids in B.C., particularly for more complex cases. “A board-certified behaviour analyst could be brought in to do a functional analysis and really determine why a severe behaviour is happening, what the triggers are,” Costanzo said. Her comments come after a Global News report about a North Vancouver special education assistant (SEA) who said the school district isn’t doing enough to protect workers or support children unable to regulate aggressive behaviour. “I was kicked and punched and slammed into a display case,” former SEA Kristen Dehal said. “I received a concussion that day — I had a big bruise on the side of my face. “I’ve never blamed the child that assaulted me. There needs to be an airtight plan for each child that is designated with a special need and is going to be included in a school environment.”… Paul Faoro, president of Canadian Union of Public Employees BC (CUPE BC), which represents about 13,000 SEAs, places much of the blame on Christy Clark’s Liberal government. … “We need to start treating special education assistants [as] an integral part of the education system,” he said. “You just can’t look at one sector or one piece of the education system, you need to do a 360 review.”
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Childhood Lost
Children today are noticeably different from previous generations, and the proof is in the news coverage we see every day. This site shows you what’s happening in schools around the world. Children are increasingly disabled and chronically ill, and the education system has to accommodate them. Things we've long associated with autism, like sensory issues, repetitive behaviors, anxiety and lack of social skills, are now problems affecting mainstream students. Blame is predictably placed on bad parenting (otherwise known as trauma from home).
Addressing mental health needs is as important as academics for modern educators. This is an unrecognized disaster. The stories here are about children who can’t learn or behave like children have always been expected to. What childhood has become is a chilling portent for the future of mankind.
Anne Dachel, Media editor, Age of Autism
http://www.ageofautism.com/media/
(John Dachel, Tech. assist.)
What will happen in another 4 years? How can we go on like this? This is a national (and international) problem of monumental proportions. We have an entire new class of children who cannot be accommodated by the system: many are manifestly neurologically impaired. Meanwhile, the government and the medical profession sleep on regardless.
John Stone,
UK media editor, Age of Autism
The generation of American children born after 1990 are arguably the sickest generation in the history of our country.
Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.
It seemed to me that with rising autism prevalence, you’d also see rising autism costs to society, and it turns out, the costs are catastrophic.
They calculated that in 2015 autism cost the United States $268 billion and they projected that if autism continues at its current rate, we’re looking at one trillion dollars a year in autism costs by 2025, so within five years.
Toby Rogers, PhD, Political economist
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