Sunday, October 11, 2009

No Guide Dogs Allowed

Xanthippa Speaks Out

I wrote a post yesterday here, about a guide dog for Annika Merner, of Windsor who has Asperger's Syndrome, a form of autism. My view, coloured by my dread of Barb Hall and the Ontario HRC was negative. Though the school board has taken an inordinate amount of time to come to what probably will be a reasonable resolution to a situation that is again probably new to them, I felt that the parent's going to Barb and her ilk is a precipitous action, that will result in no real good, but a new cause for Barb.

Xanthippa's view was different here, and quite valid, I think.

I wouldn't take my worst enemy to Barb Hall and the Ontario HRC, on principle if for no other reason.

Having just read an article in another periodical that I get where a guide dog was being used for multiple autistic children in a classroom to help them retain focus, and also to help a deaf teacher, I see that the end objective is good, but I have never questioned it.

It is too bad that the parents of Annika had to deal with one government body, a school board, and don't think that school boards are anything but government bureaucracies, and now is willing to get it on with another. Of course, from her side, once she has filed the Complaint, she can sit back and let the fur fly, literally, and figuratively.

There just has to be a better way.

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