'I still had the right to learn.' N.B. teenager shares what it's like to be excluded

A Moncton teen, who used to be excluded from class on a regular basis, is opening up about his experiences in the wake of a warning from the New Brunswick child and youth advocate that this is happening far too often in the education system.

Kelly Lamrock recently pointed out that about 500 students are regularly excluded from class for at least part of the school day and are therefore missing out on the public education they are entitled to by law.

Evan Meunier, 14, says he agrees the province should be striving for more inclusive classrooms.

"Just because I was sent out doesn't mean that I shouldn't have entered the class ever again," he said.

Evan says his exclusion from class started on an occasional basis in Grade 2 because of behaviour tied to obsessive compulsive disorder.

If something upset him, such as wanting something he couldn't have, he'd get an urge to try to escape and would often lash out by punching or kicking.

He'd either be put in a reflection room or everyone else would leave the classroom to get away from him.

Usually within about 20 minutes, Evan says, he was calm enough to rejoin the class. 

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

She would rather Evan had been able to go for a little walk.

In retrospect, Evan thinks the school handled it "pretty well," considering he didn't miss much learning and no one was hurt.

"I was just a kid going through a lot. And I still had the right to learn."

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

Before he started school, he received applied behaviour intervention through the Hébert Centre in Dieppe. It was unfortunate the intervention did not continue in kindergarten, said Meunier.