“I still had the right to learn.” New Brunswick teen shares what it means to be excluded

A Moncton teenager who was regularly excluded from classes is speaking out about his experiences following a warning from New Brunswick's child and youth advocate that this is happening far too often in the education system.

Kelly Lamrock recently highlighted that approximately 500 students are regularly excluded from classes for at least part of the school day and are therefore deprived of the public education to which they are entitled under the law.

Evan Meunier, 14, said he agrees the province should work to create more inclusive classrooms.

“Just because I was expelled doesn’t mean I should never have been in that class again,” he said.

Evan says his exclusion from class began occasionally in 2nd grade due to behavior related to obsessive-compulsive disorder.

If something upset him, such as wanting something he couldn't have, he felt like trying to escape and would often lash out by punching or kicking.

A photo of the damage one of the days Evan's parents were called to pick him up from 3rd grade. (Submitted by the Meunier family)

Either he would be placed in a thinking room or everyone would leave the classroom to get away from him.

Usually, after about 20 minutes, Evan said, he was calm enough to rejoin the class.

His mother, Lori Meunier, says it hurt her to learn the classroom would be evacuated because of Evan, and she still wonders about the psychological and social impact it had.

She would prefer if Evan could take a short walk.

Looking back, Evan thinks the school handled the situation “pretty well,” considering he didn’t miss out on much learning and no one was hurt.

“I was just a kid going through a lot. And I was always allowed to learn.”

Evan says autism sharpens his senses, which was a problem for him when he went to school. On class photo day in kindergarten, he remembers that every flash of lightning made him jump with fear. (Proposed by the Meunier family)

Evan also has autism, which makes him sensitive to things like bright lights and loud noises.

Before entering school, he benefited from an applied behavior intervention at the Center Hébert in Dieppe. It is unfortunate that the intervention will not continue in kindergarten, Meunier said.

She said she received “many” calls from the school that year, saying they were “having problems.”

Around the middle of the year, Evan started taking medication.

Meunier suspects a medication problem contributed to an increase in behavior problems in 3rd grade.

Evan was admitted to the hospital that year and his medications were reviewed and adjusted.

At this point, more resources became available, she said.

“He was able to meet with a psychologist…an amazing psychiatrist…and they were able to do a lot more evaluation and see where Evan might have been.”

He started back at school, first doing half days, and got a dedicated teaching assistant, known as an EA.

Communication and emergency planning with the school could have been better, Meunier said, and it was a challenge to involve a provincial integrated service delivery team.

But ultimately, with medication adjustments and a support worker, it made a big difference.

“It was someone who already knew him and had actually applied the training before he went to kindergarten. She was one of his favorite workers, and the school immediately noticed a change in behavior.”

By the end of 3rd grade, the beating had “pretty much” stopped, Evan said.

“I felt happier and the kids were happier with me, and things got a lot better.”

Evan and his mother Lori say that during his elementary and middle school years, he was often removed from the usual learning environment. It took time and treatment for him to learn to regulate his emotions. (Proposed by the Meunier family)

But more exclusions took place in middle school.

The disruption and uncertainty of the pandemic likely exacerbated Evan's anxiety issues, for which he also takes medication, his mother said.

“If he was forced to participate, sometimes that's when the anxiety would increase. … He feels like he's not being heard or understood or maybe he's not being given input. options – that’s where that fight or flight would come from.”

Evan says he wasn't physically aggressive in middle school, but he was sometimes verbally disrespectful, which wasn't good for the classroom environment. When this happened, he was usually sent home.

Meunier says most of the feedback she received from the school was along the lines of, “Please fix it.”

Lori, Evan and Chris Meunier visiting the CN Tower during a North American Rubik's cubing competition in Toronto in July 2022. (Submitted by the Meunier family)

She was surprised to find that integrated service delivery was not available to Evan at college. She said she knocked on a lot of doors trying to get help. He had a pediatrician and a neurodevelopmental specialist. They tried different medications. They were on a waiting list for a psychiatrist.

Lamrock's report confirmed what she had been thinking and feeling for years.

“The term ‘illegal’ used was such a justification for me,” she said.

Dealing with the schools has been very difficult, Meunier says, and this appears to be a mistake.

“My son has a right to an education…even if I couldn't treat him like the schools wanted….I couldn't put him in this cookie-cutter shape to blend in with the rest of the class. “

Meunier said she hopes a dialogue will continue to improve things like preschool intervention, de-escalation skills and EA missions.

Every year it was like a lottery, she said.

There was no guarantee that Evan would get an EA, who it would be from, or whether they would help him control his behavior or trigger it.

Now that he's in high school, Evan no longer has a teaching assistant, but he does have a resource teacher who shares information with his subject teachers, and Meunier has also been asked to share her advice.

“It was the first time I felt like they really listened to me and wanted to know him as a person.”

A photo of Evan during his elementary school years. (Proposed by the Meunier family)

She was pleasantly surprised to see that month after month, the school year went smoothly.

Evan says his verbal and physical attacks are under control and he hasn't had to miss any classes, but social inclusion remains “complicated.”

Meunier says it meant a lot to Evan when his success in a recent speed-cubing competition was mentioned at a school assembly along with other student achievements in various sports and activities.

“I think it was a good thing to help him feel included. … And I know he was really proud of it.”