Students urge province to end virtual learning, reopen lodging at school for the blind

Growing up as a visually impaired student in Toronto's public school system, Mehak Aziz often lacked the confidence to speak up in class or socialize with her peers.

Today, she can't get herself to stop talking.

The 17-year-old credits her personal growth to the Brantford-based W. Ross Macdonald School, the only institution in Ontario that offers in-person learning and lodging to blind, visually impaired and deaf-blind students.

Moving to Ross changed me as a person," said Aziz, a Grade 12 student. I talk way too much now. I'm much more confident."

Aziz went to the school in the fall of 2020 in hopes of gaining independent life skills - think how to hold a knife, use a vacuum, clean dishes - before realizing her goal of attending university away from home.

But that goal is now in peril for the senior after the province decided to keep the school's lodging program shuttered post-Christmas due to COVID-19 concerns.

The closure has forced dozens of W. Ross Macdonald students - the vast majority of who don't live in Brantford and rely on lodging - to yet again pivot to remote learning, a move that has troubled disability experts and angered students.

It's so frustrating because there's less kids at Ross than other schools that are now open - and we're the ones that really need hands-on learning," said Aziz, who can't make the daily commute to school from Toronto.

I need living skills for my future. You can't teach someone who is visually impaired how to hold a knife or cut something over a screen. You just can't. It's also dangerous."

W. Ross Macdonald is one of seven Provincial and Demonstration Schools in Ontario who've had lodging services temporarily suspended.

The Ministry of Education cited the Omicron variant and rising COVID-19 cases as reasons behind the closures in a Jan. 13 memo to school staff. They noted a return date for remote students would be set on Jan. 31.

We are committed to reopening lodging as soon as it is safe," said Caitlin Clark, a spokesperson for Education Minister Stephen Lecce, in an email to The Spec.

The idea that W. Ross Macdonald is unsafe - or less safe than Ontario public or private schools - is hard to fathom for Drew Finucane, a residential counsellor at the institution and president of the Ontario Public Service Employees Union (OPSEU) Local 219.

Finucane, whose union represents all school staff barring teachers, said there have been no COVID-19 outbreaks on campus since the pandemic began.

And that's contrary to many of the public schools around us," he said, adding the ministry did not consult the union before it closed lodging. Our students also come from all over the province - multiple communities converging in one area - and we still have not had any outbreaks. Our health and safety protocols have worked."

The Provincial Schools Authority Teachers (PSAT), who represents W. Ross Macdonald teachers, echoed those sentiments of robust safety protocols in a joint letter with OPSEU to the ministry.

Finucane said about 70 per cent of students at W. Ross Macdonald rely on lodging to attend in-person classes. The back-and-forth between classrooms and computer screens has significantly altered students' academic and personal well-being, he added.

We have deaf-blind students whose entire world is hand-over-hand communication, and they're completely disconnected. These students are not getting the education they deserve."

Students who are blind or deaf-blind are essentially treated as second-class citizens," said disability rights advocate David Lepofsky, who's also chair of the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Alliance. This idea that they're just not going to open up the school shows how low priority they have for students with disability."

While lodging remains closed, in-person classes remain open - but only for the few that can reach them.

For parent Kevin Laye, who lives just west of London, Ont., that's just not possible.

The 59-year-old said it would take five hours per day to drive his daughter, Sienna, to W. Ross Macdonald, besides already incurring a hefty gas tab.

She needs to be there but I can't make that drive every day, and she can't be in the car that long too many times," said Laye, who's had to leave work to care for his daughter at home. You have to be with her every second of the day."

Sienna, 15, was born deaf and has a learning disability. When she started at W. Ross Macdonald in 2017 or 2018, Laye saw huge and immediate" changes in her behaviour and social skills. But those have dissipated since the pandemic spurred lodging closures.

It's mentally draining because, as a parent, you want the best for your child, but I'm not equipped to have her at home and give her what she needs," he said. I just feel so bad for her."

Sebastian Bron is a reporter at The Spectator. sbron@thespec.com