Mom of boy with autism says he’s not getting support he needs from Surrey school district

SURREY (NEWS 1130) — While other families enjoy the summer, a frustrated mother in South Surrey is anxiously waiting for someone to guarantee her non-verbal 11-year-old son has the same support worker in September he had when he wrapped up Grade 4 in June.

Lama Alsaafin says hope is fading Ahmad, who has autism, will be able to keep working with the educational assistant who’s consistently helped him at Semiahmoo Trail Elementary since January.

“Nothing is guaranteed. I’m just living that stressful moment waiting for something that may happen and may not happen and I have zero support from the school district. Zero support.”

She says that’s why she’s filed a complaint with the Teacher Regulation Branch.

“It’s too much. Their legal duty for the school district is to accommodate the needs. They’re always showing me that they couldn’t care less to accommodate any of his needs.”

Alsaafin says the system is broken and hope is fading her low-functioning son, who she calls Moodi, will keep the aide he loves because CUPE 728 seniority rules prevent her from staying at the school.

“There is no one to represent the parents and the students! No one. I had to fight last year and the year before to get the full-time hours for him. If you left him by himself, he’s going to be lost in the street. He needs someone to take him to the bathroom. He needs someone to be around him 24/7.”

Alsaafin tells NEWS 1130 she feels school district staff, including Superintendent Jordan Tinney, are failing her family.

“Whatever I do. Whatever I try. Whatever I wait, you can’t help your kid and you know that he is need. You need to accommodate the kids’s needs — not your collective agreements.”

She says the support worker who currently holds the position took sick leave early in the school year, so she didn’t spend more than three weeks with her son, and the aide who’s been working with him since January has a great relationship with Moodi.

“That EA, she was wonderful. For me, from the first day, the way she was interacting with my son — and by the way, when she started working with my son, his health was going downward. This is not right. This is not right.”

Alsaafin adds her son’s health problems include having an enlarged liver and spleen.

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School district staff say they can’t comment because they need to protect the privacy of the people involved, but Alsaafin says she received an email on the morning of July 15 from an administrator who told her she’ll have to wait until at least August 9 for a response.

We’ve also reached out to CUPE 728, but the union local’s office is closed on Mondays during the summer.

Ministry of Education staff say the government is committed to improving services for students which includes hiring 1,000 education assistants and 500 special education teachers over the last two years, as well as 190 more teacher psychologists and counsellors.

Ministry staff also say, “as the employer, the local school district is responsible for staffing decisions and organizing classrooms to support the best interests of students.”

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