Shortage of EAs means Sumi gets sent home
Nine-year-old who uses wheelchair needs help with bathroom, lunches
Mutasim Saeed says school is his “second home.”
The nine-year-old, known as Sumi, loves hanging out with friends in his Grade 4 Cootes Paradise Elementary School class.
So it makes him sad when he’s sent home for the day because there aren’t enough staff to support his needs. “When I look at the board and we have something fun, I’m hoping that I don’t have to go home,” he said.
Sumi has spinal muscular atrophy, a progressive disease that causes weakness in muscles, and uses a wheelchair. He’s mostly independent, needing help from an educational assistant (EA) only to use the bathroom and sometimes to open his lunch box.
On Friday during physical activity and board games, Sumi learned he’d have to leave school for the day while his peers got to stay.
“I had to go home because there was a shortage of EAs,” he said.
Sumi’s father, Mutaz Arbab, said this has been happening since his son was in Grade 3, sometimes occasionally and sometimes twice in a week. “This has happened multiple times where I had to come and pick my son up from the school, which is not only inconvenient but also creates stress and anxiety for my son.”
On Thursday last week, Arbab was given a choice: pick up his son or be on call to assist him.
“I refused to take my son home and instead stayed in front of the school all day in case he needed to use the washroom,” the father said.
Hamilton-Wentworth District School Board spokesperson Shawn McKillop said in an email the board monitors schools where there are “staffing pressures” and that “every measure is taken to fill a staff vacancy.”
“We regret this happened, as every child has the right to attend school and participate in their
‘‘ When I look at the board and we have something fun, I’m hoping that I don’t have to go home.
MUTASIM SAEED
education,” he said.
“It will not happen again.” McKillop said there are “ongoing ” efforts to recruit staff, but didn’t specify what action the board is taking to address the situation at Cootes Paradise. The board did not say how many times students have been sent home due to inadequate staffing, and how many students are affected. It is also unclear whether the same has happened at other schools. But McKillop said sending kids home is “not a standard of practice.”
Arbab, whose family moved to Canada in 2018 as refugees from Sudan, said the situation is preventing him from getting a full-time job in his field. The father, a transportation engineer recently graduated from Mohawk College, said he wants to “pay back” the country that gave them permanent residency. “But I can’t do that because I have to support my own son,” he said, adding that the calls are typically unexpected and in the middle of the school day. “There is no guarantee that he will get the assistance that he needs.”
For a period of time this year, Sumi stopped asking to use the washroom because he didn’t want to put added stress on EAs who were already “overwhelmed,” Arbab said, adding that inadequate staffing is also unfair to the workers.
For years, the family has been working to get enough support for their son, who is supposed to get regular exercise during the day to improve his muscle strength. His mother, Safa Ahmed, said the physiotherapist recommends 30 minutes of walking and standing daily while at school, which she says is “critical.” Sumi has lost his ability to stand on his own, which he could manage last year, due to a decrease in exercise throughout the day, his parents say.
His parents say school staff are doing the best they can with the resources they have.
Arbab says he reached out to the school superintendent and trustee in the fall, and has yet to receive a meaningful response. The Cootes Paradise school council voted at a Jan. 10 meeting to write a letter to the board’s special education advisory committee “in support of more EA support” for students, reads the meeting minutes.
Arbab says he is coming forward because he believes in “equal treatment for all students regardless of their abilities.” He says he knows other families are also in the same situation. “I’m not going to fight for my son,” he said. “I’m going to fight for everyone who is in need.”