What comes next for the children at Bedford elementary?
CBC
Community members in Cote-des-Neiges are asking what comes next for students of an elementary school that has been at the centre of a political and media firestorm.
Eleven teachers at Bedford elementary, a French public school in west-central Montreal, were suspended after the Education Ministry published a report alleging that a group of teachers there had for years created a toxic atmosphere.
The report alleges teachers excessively punished and verbally demeaned students, and would not allow specialized resources for students with learning disabilities in the classroom, because the teachers didn't think those disabilities were valid.
The allegations hit a nerve with Veronica Jane Bertiz, the director of advocacy with Kapwa, a community group that works with Filipino youth in the neighbourhood.
"When you are a child, you think of the adults as the people who have their stuff together, and who you can always ask for help," she said. "In this case, we have severely failed them."
The government report concludes that the school service centre in charge of Bedford, the Centre de services scolaire de Montréal (CSSDM), "lost sight of what was going on" at the school and didn't do enough to correct it.
That has Bertiz and others in her community wondering what support is coming for both current and past students.
"What type of damage have they experienced? The academic confidence, the confidence in institutions — is it still there?" she said.
In a statement to CBC News, the CSSDM says it is working to reach all parents of students who have passed through Bedford since 2017, and has brought in multiple psychological resources for students still enrolled.
It said it would communicate with parents in French, which it says "contributes to their integration into Quebec society," or English, if needed, but would not explore options for translation or interpretation in other languages.
The Education Ministry's report notes that many parents of children at the school are not fluent in English or French.
The service centre has also set up a phone number and email address that anyone can use to file a complaint arising at any of its schools.
Bertiz isn't sure these efforts are enough.
"I try to be an optimistic person," she said. "But given their history … it's hard to give my full confidence to them."
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