While a wheelchair-bound Rock City Elementary student will be able to attend music class once again, his mother still has questions.
Shannon Raines said her son Bob, 12, who has cerebral palsy, was unable to attend music class after it was moved to a portable classroom in September and while it has been moved back to an accessible room, she wonders what became of the original plan, which included a ramp.
“I’m going to follow up with the school board because they did say they ordered one and that’s what we were waiting for, that length of time ... we were supposed to make other arrangements until then, but everything just kept falling through. I don’t know why it’s not coming anymore,” said Raines.
According to Dale Burgos, Nanaimo school district spokesman, after the class was moved into the portable, the principal realized that Raines’s son wouldn’t be able to access the classroom and there was a plan in place to build a ramp, but it changed.
“The assistant superintendent (Robyn Gray) had heard about this – I guess the parent had called here – and then [Gray] instructed the principal to do whatever the principal could do to move the classroom so that we provide the inclusive classroom to make sure that everyone can be involved, now that’s when the plan for the ramp was scrapped,” said Burgos.
Burgos said it’s a bit of a process and he knows it didn’t happen as quickly as Raines would’ve liked.
“So we’re trying to respect her wishes and also trying to make sure that making the space available will work for everybody involved, because I guess it will take a lot to put it into a new space,” Burgos said. “However, what I do know is that there is a plan in place to do that.”