Churchills speak out in support of west coast mother of deaf child
Kimberly Churchill says discrimination her son suffered continues to happen
CORNER BROOK – As Corner Brook mother Samantha Brown speaks out about the discrimination her 11-yearold daughter, Lilly Brown, is facing as a deaf child within the public school system, an east coast couple is frustrated that discrimination is still happening after how long and hard they fought against it.
Kimberly Churchill and her husband, Todd Churchill, filed a human rights complaint in 2017 alleging that the Newfoundland and Labrador English School District (now NL Schools) failed to implement appropriate accommodations so their son, Carter, could access the education services which the district offers to the public.
A year ago, the province's Human Rights Commission ruled in favour of the Portugal Cove-st. Philip's family.
It was a ruling that many thought would mean changes for all deaf children, but that hasn’t been so.
“The problem is that when Carter’s case went through the human rights process, and it was proven that the school district discriminated against him for all those years they only actually helped Carter. The ruling was only supposed to help Carter,” said Kimberly.
“The adjudicator did not look at this as a systemic issue, that there’s multiple Carters living in Newfoundland and Labrador so let’s make this a broad ruling,” she said.
While the ruling doesn’t apply to others, Kimberly said Carter’s classmates are reaping the rewards of what happened.
“Because they are put in a classroom with Carter.”
It is a classroom dedicated to deaf children, where they have access to American Sign Language (ASL), a deaf teacher and teacher learning assistants who are deaf. It is something the Churchills had asked for repeatedly and was put in place in 2020.
“The benefits of everything that we fought so hard for, for years, those parents, those children, will automatically receive," said Kimberly.
“But unless you’re living or going to school with Carter Churchill, you’re not going to get those things. Which is completely absurd and it’s not right.”
She said that leaves out a lot of children, and they’ve heard the same things that Brown is saying from people all over the province.
FIGHTING THE SYSTEM
Brown told Saltwire that she has been fighting for seven years for her daughter to get the services and assistance she needs to be successful in school.
Lilly is in Grade 6 at Eastside Elementary in Corner Brook. Lilly is deaf and nonverbal, and, combined with some other medical issues, she needs some extra supports in the classroom –– supports that a frustrated Brown said are not always there, and, if they are, they're at a very reduced capacity.
The Churchills say they know what Brown and Lilly are going through.
Kimberly said it’s frustrating because their case was a precedent-setting landmark case and is being used in other provinces and countries where it is helping people, while the Newfoundland and Labrador government is apparently refusing to look at any other cases in this province.
She said the message seems to be that unless someone is going to go the route they did with the human rights complaint, the government doesn’t care.
“Because you’re not making enough noise to care about, and that’s wrong on so many levels,” said Kimberly. “Why does it take a parent having to contact the media to get some noise made to make it known that there is a problem?”
Kimberly said people at NL Schools know there is a problem and knew it before it became an issue with their human rights complaint.
“They’re just refusing to do anything about it because that means they’re going to have to do some hard work and they don’t want to do it,” she said.
‘HELD THEM TO ACCOUNT’
Todd Churchill has spoken with Brown, and says everything she told him, they lived.
“I have total sympathy for her because we lived it.”
He agrees that because Brown hasn’t filed a human rights complaint and up to now had not gone to the media, nobody really cares.
Their complaint regarding Carter, he said, is the only reason there has been change for Carter.
“We held them to account. And the other kids in this area are benefiting from that,” he said. “The problem (Lilly) has is she’s far enough away from us that she hasn’t benefited collaterally from what we did.”
Todd said a similar model to the classroom that Carter is in needs to be put in place elsewhere, in places like Corner Brook and Grand Fallswindsor — one that would bring the children in from a reasonable area.
“You could set up these satellite classrooms at centralized major places to prevent the situation where a single child is the only deaf child in the classroom.”
A BLANKET RESPONSE
Saltwire asked the Department of Education what resources are available for deaf children on the west coast.
In an emailed response, the department said it provides classroom supports for deaf and hard-of-hearing students in the kindergarten to Grade 12 public education system.
“Deaf and hard-of-hearing students are assessed prior to entering the school system, at which point resources are determined based on the student’s individual needs. Supports and resources may include a student assistant trained in American Sign Language, itinerant teachers, teaching and learning assistants, or dedicated teachers for deaf and hard-of-hearing classrooms.”
Kimberly said that statement indicates the government is looking at things in a generality.
“They are not looking at this as a specific individual child,” she said.
“How you’re going to educate one child as opposed to another is going to be completely like night and day. And I think for them to respond to you as like this is a holistic approach and it’s just in generalities what we do. I mean, that just shows you right there that they do not have their finger on the pulse of what is happening to the children in their school system, and that is blatantly obvious.”