Ontario must conduct investigation to protect students in schools for the deaf & blind

Twenty-five years ago, the Law Commission of Canada published a landmark report detailing the extent of child abuse in Canadian institutions. 

Schools, children’s aid societies, mental health organizations and other institutions meant to protect and support the learning of children were found to be doing the very opposite. 

The report’s recommendations were a clarion call for change—a demand to fix a tragedy of “enormous proportions”. 

“All Canadians must recognize the legacy of institutional child abuse not only to redress the terrible harms done in the past, but also to ensure that they do not recur,” the study concluded.

In some ways the country has improved…after decades of harm. 

Residential schools were finally abolished and the federal government has accepted accountability for a practice many view as a cultural genocide. 

Mental health treatment, while still underfunded, has come a long way in practice and setting from what was offered in the sanitoria of the past. 

Programs that assist children with disabilities, including with diagnoses like autism and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) have become much more available.

But it’s clear there is still so much further to go, and without an interest among decision-makers—or the ability to force them into action—the harm will continue. 

The Pointer has been reporting on Ontario’s schools for the deaf and blind for more than two years, and the reporting has left many rattled by what has been uncovered. 

It started with Jane. 

She and her family are suing the Ontario government and Provincial Demonstrations School Branch (PDSB) for the trauma Jane (an alias) endured while attending E.C. Drury School for the Deaf in Milton—one of the seven PDSB schools in Ontario for children who are deaf, blind, deaf-blind and with other disabilities. 

Jane was abused, physically and sexually at the hands of her fellow students. She suffered a traumatic brain injury that left her with debilitating symptoms that she described as “lightning in her brain”. She suffered hallucinations, recurring nightmares and flashbacks. 

A fellow student shared a semi-nude image of her with others at the school. When administrators learned about it, they failed to inform Jane’s parents, despite widespread acceptance of the harm this type of non-consensual exploitation can have. 

Life became unbearable for Jane. She retreated into herself, consumed by thoughts that nobody wanted to help her, that nobody cared.

Jane attempted to take her own life, multiple times. 

Her lawsuit alleges she was ignored by teachers and administrators paid to keep her safe, and prevented from obtaining critical medical assessments that could have diagnosed her ailments sooner and connected her with the treatment she desperately needed. Instead, administrators blocked these assessments, hid information about assaults from police and portrayed Jane as a successful student who enjoyed her time at the school. 

The Ontario government and PDSB deny the allegations made against them.

The good news is that Jane survived her ordeal. But she is not alone. 

Jane (not her real name) attended E.C. Drury School for the Deaf in Milton where she was subjected to horrendous abuse by fellow students, which was allegedly ignored by senior administrators.

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Class action lawsuits involving hundreds of students dating back decades at the PDSB detailing physical and sexual abuse have been settled by the Ontario government, which has paid out over $20 million to make these cases go away and avoid any admission of wrongdoing. No review has ever been done to determine how this traumatic abuse could have been avoided, or how to keep it from happening again. 

Consider that for a moment. These schools operated by the Ontario government are rife with allegations of sexual and physical abuse taking place over decades—a 2016 settlement states “teachers, residence counsellors and staff at the schools often approached the students with contempt, prejudice, indifference and abuse” leading to sexual, physical and emotional abuse at the hands of these employees meant to educate these vulnerable students. 

Instead of immediately launching an inquiry to figure out how even just one case of abuse could have occurred, let alone the multiple cases outlined in the pair of class action lawsuits, the Government of Ontario has swept the entire thing under the rug, refusing to take a closer look. 

This ongoing pattern of turning a blind eye has allowed abuse to continue. Full stop. 

There is no claiming ignorance, there is no dismissing this as a few bad apples in the school system, there is no excuse.

This is not to detract from the amazing work many teachers and administrators in the PDSB do. As one senior union official disclosed, the teachers who choose to work in this space do it out of a real desire to help. They make less money, are given fewer resources, but yet still find a way to help these vulnerable students. This work is done in spite of a system that is set up to hold them back. 

Over two years of reporting a clear pattern emerged, of mismanagement, secrecy and denial from the senior PDSB officials and the PC government. 

The PCs rarely provide direct responses to questions from The Pointer. There has never been an explanation provided as to why the government refuses to conduct an investigation into the issues within these schools. Education Minister Jill Dunlop, who has only been in the role for the last four months, has not ruled out an audit, but has refused to comment further. When confronted with the reality in these schools, the PCs would rather shunt the issue off as nothing more than “opposition rhetoric” instead of doing the work to stop the abuse the system has allowed for decades. 

Ontario’s Auditor General must include the Provincial Demonstrations School Branch within the scope of its audit plan for 2025. There is more than enough evidence to support a sweeping probe. 

When determining which government ministries or agencies to include for audits, the AG considers three basic questions about the money being used by the agency: is it being spent with “due regard for economy”; is it being spent with “due regard for efficiency”; and are appropriate mechanisms in place to “measure and report on the effectiveness of the programs?”

The AG also looks at audits through the lens of potential risk to the general public, “including vulnerable populations”. 

Based on the financial question and the risks, PDSB falls directly in the crosshairs of the provincial Auditor’s scope. 

A total of $23 million has been paid out in lawsuits—with more still pending. This is an exorbitant amount of money, especially when teachers and union officials have been saying for years that more funding is needed to fix aging schools and infrastructure. Not only has the government failed to conduct a review to figure out how to avoid future lawsuits, it continues to adamantly deny the PDSB is underfunded, despite the evidence provided by union officials.

Spending $23 million on lawsuit settlements is the furthest thing from having a strong regard for the economy and efficiency. It’s gross mismanagement at best, and a cover-up allowing abuse to continue at worst. 

When looking at the risks, they are harder to quantify, but no less real.

There is the mental trauma the abuse inflicts. There is the underfunding which prevents these vulnerable children from learning the proper life skills to thrive on their own; and there is the potential for misdiagnoses when administrators fail to provide proper assessments, to name a few of the disturbing ripple effects. 

In February 2022, the PDSB’s former chief psychologist Dr. Stephen James resigned. He wrote in his resignation letter that he loved the PDSB, and leaving was a “painful choice” but stated he could not continue to work under the decision making of the senior management team (SMT). 

He drew attention to the board’s refusal to allow him to conduct necessary assessments. One of these key tests is a psychoeducational assessment, which can help identify issues and learning needs for these students. It’s the same assessment Jane’s family allege in their lawsuit that she was denied, leading to misdiagnosis and contributing to her ongoing struggles. 

“Students have had years of instruction, and even graduated, without needed assessments,” James wrote. “At best, these families paid thousands of dollars out of pocket to get access to (other) services and accommodations for their children. At worst, our lack of transition support changed these graduating students’ life trajectories.”

James wrote that, while denied the ability to conduct these assessments, he was directed to complete two of them. The first was for a student whose family had threatened the board with a lawyer, the second was after the family took the matter to their MPP. 

“I objected to the inequity of a system in which they failed to provide for all students, and select assessments based on SMT’s needs. Especially as this unfairly favours families with privilege,” he explained. “I also objected to the hypocrisy of asking me to provide specific assessments while denying me the ability to do the assessments for which I was hired.”

These glaring issues are fodder for an auditor general’s performance audit, which would analyze how the PDSB “manages and administers its programs, services and activities” to get an idea of the “underlying operations to assess the level of service being delivered to the public and the relative efficiency and effectiveness of that service.”

The management issues extend beyond the failure to provide critical medical or educational assessments. 

The Ministry of Labour has investigated several incidents, including one where the images look like a bomb went off in a classroom after a violent student episode. Inspectors found several violations, including a failure to adequately update student safety plans for years, despite some students having been involved in a number of violent incidents. 

In response, an interim policy was created that in the event of further violent incidents a cowbell should be rung. The policy was created without any input from deaf staff members. When deaf staff expressed concerns about this new policy during a staff meeting, they were ignored by senior administrators. 

This system came on the back of a previous one that staff members with visual or physical disabilities also found discriminatory. In the previous system, in the event of an emergency inside a classroom, a card was passed to the nearest staff member or responsible student outside the classroom, who could then use it to signal help. However, following incidents with no available staff to assist, forcing teachers with physical disabilities to leave the room to summon help, the system was deemed ineffective by the teachers tasked with using it. According to documents viewed by The Pointer, these concerns were shared with senior managers, and this system was even criticized by the Ministry of Labour for being ineffective, yet managers still insisted it was effective. 

These types of issues rarely get the attention they deserve in Ontario. The PC government under Premier Doug Ford has made a habit of ignoring the needs of those with disabilities. This means without the work of the auditor general, this mismanagement and abuse will be allowed to continue. 

“It’s part of an overall pattern,” says NDP MPP Chandra Pasma who has been the most vocal advocate at Queen’s Park for families and students looking for change within the PDSB. “It doesn’t really matter what stage of life we’re talking about, whether we’re talking about physical needs, or education needs, or income needs, we’re just seeing a complete lack of concern for the challenges and the needs that people with disabilities are facing.”

NDP MPP Chandra Pasma is urging Ontario’s Auditor General to investigate the Provincial Demonstrations School Branch.

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Last year, Pasma held a press conference and called on the auditor general to conduct an audit of the PDSB after she received numerous complaints and cries for help from families with children in the board—complaints she is still receiving to this day. Because the AG’s slate of audits for 2024 was already set at the time, the only way to change it would have been through a motion from the Standing Committee on Public Accounts, which can order the AG to change its plans. The motion was defeated by PC MPPs on the committee in a disturbing display of ignorance toward the plight of these students and families. None of them provided an explanation for blocking the motion, many of them were on their phones, ignoring Pasma and other Opposition MPPs who were making the case for why this audit was so desperately needed. 

In an early January interview, Pasma urged the Auditor General to step in as she had now exhausted all the legislative tools available to try and help these families in need. 

“What population could be more vulnerable than this?”

There are limited options for accountability currently within the PDSB, which one can theorize would be the reason why these issues have been allowed to proliferate. 

The Law Commission report mentioned at the top of this story highlights how the absence of independent monitoring within many of the institutions it considered allowed issues to remain hidden as concerns were either ignored or swept under the rug. 

While other school boards in Ontario have arms-length trustees elected to ensure the schools are run efficiently and administrators are held accountable, there is no such board for the PDSB. The schools are run by the Provincial Schools Authority, which is simply an extension of the Ministry of Education. Union officials and teachers view these schools as being operated by the Ontario government.

It’s why the auditor general, an independent body, is the perfect agency to finally conduct this review and identify a path forward for change. 

When contacted, the AG’s office did not rule it out.

“We carefully consider all information available to us before selecting an audit topic, including information sent to us by Members of Provincial Parliament and the public,” Becky Fong, an executive advisor in the AG’s office explained. 

“At this point in time, we cannot confirm the audits we will be undertaking for this year.”

For the hundreds of students who have suffered, and those still suffering, like Jane, the AG should make the right decision. 

Editor’s Note: To contact The Pointer on this issue, please reach out to Editor-in-Chief Joel Wittnebel at [email protected]