Editor:

I was involved in the Just Say Hi campaign a few weeks ago.

Students with developmental disabilities, along with their teachers and support staff walked from City Hall to the Four Corners as part of the Just Say Hi campaign.

The campaign addresses the need to feel safe and how people with developmental disabilities and the community can ensure they feel safe. Their feedback to CLBC was, “If people would just say hi to us more, maybe we would feel more included and feel like we had more people to ask for help if we needed it.” (CLBC Website, www.startwithhi.ca/p/about_start_with_hi).

I was invited to speak to the assembled group on an issue dealing with the theme of Just Say Hi.

I decided to write about the value of inclusive education and an inclusive community.

I first came to Quesnel in the winter of 1995. I had never met a child with special needs and the term developmental disability was foreign.

At that time in Australia children were placed on the special bus that drove them to the special school. Students with developmental disabilities were not included in the regular school and classroom setting.

The closest I ever came to someone with developmental disabilities was a wave to the kids as the bus went by. Coming to Quesnel was an eye opener for me.

I had, at that time, no contact with children or adults with developmental disabilities.

In fact, my first contact ever, face to face with someone with developmental disabilities was when I visited in the 1990’s. I met a boy who had the diagnosis of Autism Spectrum Disorder. This boy cried, and yelled and squealed.

He was non-verbal and he frightened me, but not because he was frightening.

I had no experience or contact or knowledge about ASD and this lack of knowledge placed me in a difficult and awkward position.

My fear at the time was a direct result of a non-inclusive education policy that was present in Australia.

Non inclusive educational policy remains one of the biggest concerns for me in regards to inclusion in general and inclusive communities. Non inclusive education will always lead to a non inclusive community.

Inclusive education is one of the first stepping stones to an inclusive post secondary life. Inclusion in Quesnel begins even before children enter the kindergarten classroom. Inclusive education envelops the child in a carefully constructed and child centred web of support.

The web of support includes parents, the child, extended family, people who have worked with the child in the past, teachers, and other professional specialists like speech and language pathologists or occupation therapists.

I believe strongly in inclusive education and work everyday to ensure students are not only included with their peers in a typical classroom, but that they are welcomed and enjoy attending regular classrooms.

Inclusive education is vitally important. Children with developmental disabilities, like their typical peers, go to class and play and eat snacks and run and jump and climb and sing and write, and play scrabble alongside their age appropriate peers. Support networks meet regularly to plan for inclusive, effective and fun education for children with developmental disabilities.

The school district’s motto is Together We Can, and these three little words mean so much to me and to families and children. For me it means that together as a community we can make a difference for all children in our care.

Whenever I think about the motto I always add “Together We Do” to the end. We do include kids, all kids. We do work together.

We do help kids achieve goals and help them plan to reach their North Star, their dream. Together we put words in action every day, in classrooms across our wonderful town.

Together, parents, children, families, teachers, principals, and district staff, work together to ensure children with developmental disabilities are included in their community schools and classrooms.

I believe that together we will continue to work towards ensuring inclusive education is standard practice and work towards developing understanding and awareness for our community.

Together we have developed inclusive education and together we continue to work towards creating a more inclusive community. I am so glad I chose to live in Quesnel and everyday I am reminded by the children that I work with, that being a teacher is the best job in the world.

Tania Blak

Quesnel