The parents of an elementary-age deaf child in the metro region who filed a human rights complaint over the level of services available to him in the education system will have their case heard.
The cornerstone of Todd and Kim Churchill’s case was Carter’s limited access to services like American Sign Language, Cater’s first language.
Todd Churchill says the commission has agreed to go to the next level, which is a formal board of inquiry.
He says the education is inadequate. For example in kindergarten, students have access to a teacher trained in American Sign Language for an hour-and-a-half to two hours every seven school days. Churchill says it was essentially a daycare.
This year the school board offered a new program, which Churchill describes as something they have been calling for but they have not been told whether it will continue next year, which will be grade 5 for Carter.
Meanwhile, Todd and Kim Churchill have organized a GoFundMe to help with their human rights complaint with the Newfoundland and Labrador Human Rights Commission.
GoFundMe page excerpt:
This is a fight that goes beyond Carter Churchill. This is also a fight for all the other Deaf children in Newfoundland and Labrador who are currently being deprived of the opportunity to have a quality education equivalent to what hearing children receive. Children like Hailey, 9, and Nate, 8, who received 2 hrs of instruction per day with a trained Teacher of the Deaf instead of the 6 hours that their hearing classmates received in the past school year with their teachers. Children like William, 2, in Labrador who instead of being followed by a Teacher of the Deaf regularly to develop ASL pre-school, sees that person only once every 6 weeks because there is only one trained Teacher of the Deaf to cover the entire area of Labrador.
We need your help for Carter, Hailey, Nate, William and all the current and future Deaf children that will be deprived of an education if the status quo is not changed. We are determined to fight and have the resolve to win. We must. The formal decision in this hearing will impact all current and future Deaf children.
We often think of leaving a legacy and there is no greater legacy than helping a child reach their full potential.
