‘I need to know what happened’
Mother of autistic five-year-old demanding answers regarding incident at C.B.S. school
When Natasha Vickers of Long Pond sent her five-year-old autistic son to school on June 14, she never thought he would end up being involved in a police investigation of a staff member’s conduct towards students.
“I never would’ve thought in a million years something like this would happen,” she told The Telegram Tuesday. “I was shocked.”
The Newfoundland and Labrador English School District confirmed to The Telegram Monday that a staff member at Admiral’s Academy in Kelligrews, Conception Bay South, has been suspended following an incident there a few weeks ago. A district spokesperson said there were complaints made towards the staff member, alleging “inappropriate verbal and physical interactions with students of a non-sexual nature.”
The person has been placed on leave and that the matter has been referred to the RNC.
Neither the district nor the RNC would provide any further information, including the identity of the staff member and what position the person holds at the school, since the investigating is ongoing.
But Vickers is angry that they won’t provide information to her or her family about what happened.
“It’s pretty bad when The Telegram knows just as much as we do,” she said. “We’re his parents and we need to know what happened.”
Vickers said she got a phone call from a district spokesman about a half an hour after she picked her son up from school that day.
“He was so vague about, it was crazy,” Vickers said. “He told me there were allegations about a staff member at the school, but he couldn’t tell who it was, what happened, how many times it’s happened. He wouldn’t tell me anything.
“I was like, ‘Excuse me?’ He was spitting it out like it was nothing.”
She said it was only after several phone calls and demands for answers that she got some detail about one of the reported incidents. She said she was told some details about one incident, but wants more.
“I don’t know what to believe because we’re only getting small bits of information,” she said. “And there are so many rumours going around.”
She said Hudson — who is verbal, but often has trouble expressing himself and regulating his emotions and has attention deficit hyperactivity disorder — didn’t say anything about the incident to her. However, she said her mother, who picks Hudson up when she works night shift, noticed he had been a little upset last week. She said when she asked what was wrong, he said it was a secret. She assumed it was issues he was having with his friends.
She said Hudson started the school year at Topsail Elementary, but had to transfer him after she wasn’t happy with how he was treated by staff after he displayed behavioural issues.
Vickers said things were going well at Admiral’s Academy, where she said the staff, “are amazing” and have helped Hudson improve so much this year.
It’s why she was so surprised to hear about these allegations.
“There are no words,” she said, when asked about how it’s made her feel. “I feel deceived. This is a school that we put 100 per cent trust in. Your kids walk through the doors of school and you’re expecting to get that kind of trust, that he’ll be with people you can rely on to treat him right. It’s so upsetting.”
Meanwhile, The Telegram emailed Admiral’s Academy principal Robin Mcgrath for a comment about the incident, but he replied, “I am not at liberty to make any public comments in connection with this matter at this time.”