Parents seek support from school staff, with mixed results

November 3, 2010

Kristin Rushowy

EDUCATION REPORTER

A young, student who suffers from diabetes, was told he couldn’t eat a snack in class. Then his teacher complained that he seemed tired all the time.

The mother of a kindergarten student was told to keep her daughter out of school for a couple of years until the child “was old enough to take care of her diabetes.”

Too often, schools are a place of too much frustration for parents and children with the disease.

“There was a lack of knowledge,” says London, Ont. mother Mandy Conlon, co-founder of Diabetes in Ontario Schools ( www.diabetesinschools.ca), of her daughter’s experiences in the education system.

“My ambition at the time was to talk to the administration (at one school) and say, ‘What can we do?’ Unfortunately, what came across was an administration, which because of board policies, was not able to do anything. It was looked at as a liability; you are intervening medically, according to the school system.”

Unlike anaphylaxis — especially peanut allergies — there is little awareness about Type 1 diabetes in Ontario schools.

But it, too, can be fatal.

Type 1 diabetes affects some 7,000 school-aged children in the province, some of whom require aid while at school to monitor and treat the disease.

Conlon’s group is pressuring the government for clear and consistent guidelines on managing diabetes in schools — much like “Sabrina’s Law” governing anaphylaxis — and is hoping a private members’ bill isn’t overlooked by the provincial government.

Conlon said her group isn’t asking that teachers be responsible, but that schools with diabetic students inform teachers of the symptoms of low and high blood sugar, and that there be at least one adult there all the time who is trained and can intervene when needed.

In New Brunswick, a new policy directs teachers to be informed about diabetes, allow diabetic students to eat snacks when they need to, and principals to make sure enough staff members are trained including an “emergency team” where needed. Students with diabetes are to have a school-based plan that outlines their routines and care.

“We are not looking for schools to make management decisions, but rather work with the parents and child to administer assistance,” says Conlon. “Very young children can’t test their own blood or administer their own insulin and this is where we need help from schools.

“As the child grows older, they become self-sufficient with management tasks,” she adds. “However, they may need other accommodations such as being allowed to test their blood sugar in class or keeping juice boxes in the class to treat low blood sugar.”

Bill 5, from Brant MPP Dave Levac — who also introduced Sabrina’s Law — would, among other things, give diabetic children the right to conduct blood sugar tests, time to eat snacks and lunch, and inject insulin in a safe space.

Conlon’s daughter Ashley was diagnosed with Type 1 when she was 12 and since that time — she’s now 16 — the family has had a number of incidents in two different schools.

She’s been kicked out of classrooms for eating even when teachers know of her condition.

Earlier this year, the Toronto District School Board — Canada’s largest — passed a “diabetes management plan” that spells out the responsibilities of schools when they have students with the disease. It also allows for staff to supervise and support children if they are too young to check their blood sugar, or in an emergency situation.

Toronto mom Elaine Noble said her son Tyler, now 17, was on a strict schedule as a child and had to have a snack by 10 a.m. “or he wouldn’t be awake by noon.”

In Grade 2, his teacher arbitrarily ruled he couldn’t eat in the classroom. Then, he was allowed to, but only at a desk away from other students that singled him out.

“He was so stressed by school that year,” she says. “He was dreading it, and hating it. He was already self-conscious enough.”

Eventually, a sympathetic vice-principal helped work out a plan to help Tyler, who had developed the disease at age 2.

But Tyler’s high school experience has been entirely different, she adds.

She fully expected a call from the principal saying her son would not be allowed to go on a nine-day trip to Europe. To her surprise he called and said “we need a plan to get him there.”

All teachers and fellow students attended diabetes and anaphylactic information sessions — another boy with that allergy went on the trip, too.

“They’ve been so supportive,” and that’s made all the difference.

Editor's Picks