A North Vancouver father has launched a human rights case aimed at forcing schools to administer insulin to children with diabetes.
John Paul Morrison lodged the complaint against the North Vancouver school district and the B.C. Ministry of Children and Family Development in March. It recently received the go-ahead from the B.C. Human Rights Tribunal.
Morrison's eight-year-old son, Jack, was diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes at age four. He requires daily injections of insulin to maintain healthy blood-sugar levels. While older children can usually administer the medicine themselves, younger children need help.
But when Jack started attending elementary school, district officials informed Morrison that staff weren't trained to administer the drug or check blood-glucose levels. That's the parent's responsibility,
they said. Starting last September, when Jack entered Grade 1, that often meant two trips to school each day.
"They have snacks and lunch, and every time you eat with diabetes you usually have some insulin," said Morrison. "The school basically pointed the finger to nursing support services and Vancouver Coastal Health, and their nurse said 'we don't do this.'"
After several complaints, Vancouver Coastal Health offered to train a schoolsupport worker to administer insulin for Jack starting this coming September, but Morrison said they are still calling his a "special situation." He wants to see the school district's policy on diabetes changed, so other parents don't experience the same frustration.
"We don't want to just fix this for Jack," said Morrison. "We could just walk away and say we're done; we got what we need."
In a written response to his submission, the tribunal accepted the allegations and said the complaint could be heard on the grounds of physical disability. A separate complaint against the Ministry of Health Services wasn't accepted.
The North Vancouver school district couldn't comment on any specific case, but said the Ministry of Education doesn't fund full-time aides needed to provide that level of care. Instead, school staff try to find individual arrangements for each student.
"Staff typically organize a meeting in advance of registration for parents of children with special needs," said spokeswoman Victoria Miles in an email statement.
Todd Pocklington is facing a similar challenge with his son, Macoy, who starts Kindergarten this September. Macoy turns five this month and uses an insulin pump, and the Pocklingtons asked the North Vancouver school district for a teaching aide to help Macoy monitor the glucose levels and administer insulin. Pocklington has been told another aide will try to take time from a different student to attend to Macoy, but, less than a month before Labour Day, the details are still up in the air.
"I'm very scared to know what's going to happen," he said. His wife has taken her vacation for the first three weeks of school, but both parents work, making visits to school much more difficult. He said he doesn't see a reason why school staff can't be trained.
Morrison runs the website www.unsafeatschool.ca for information on school policies for diabetic students across the country, which lists further information on the complaint.
tholloway@nsnews.com
