This letter is in response to the article about Simon, the 12-year-old with Asperger's syndrome who had his enrolment in the Victoria School of Arts revoked for political/public funding reasons tied to being labelled as a special needs student.
I have read the article several times now. First in confusion, and subsequent times with hope of achieving clarity. And I didn't find any. The article reads as though the only red tape preventing this student from going to a school that sounds as though it would benefit his abilities in language arts is the St. Albert Public board denying the transfer of special needs funding to the Edmonton board that Victoria School of Arts falls under. And every time I read that statement, I got confused as to whether I was reading propaganda with missing facts or if, as a society, we are really so removed from what benefits a child that we would deny this child the opportunity to thrive under an arts-based curriculum because of bureaucratic red tape and district markers set out based on population and not needs.
If this school has room, is equipped to manage the needs of this student and there is any conceivable chance Simon would flourish at this school under their management, curriculum and in the presence of his older brother, I see no reason why St. Albert should prevent him from attending.
The things we value as a society are skewed when the happiness and potential success of a child are not priority. And for the record, I have no children. I pay taxes, I volunteer and give to charity, I am a proponent of the "life's not fair" mantra. But this is ridiculous. Tamara Seapy, St. Albert
