A mother who lost her asthmatic son because he couldn’t get to his inhaler fast enough is criticizing the school for confiscating his medicine.
Sandra Gibbons of Ontario is speaking out about the school’s zero tolerance policy against asthma inhalers after her 12-year-old son, Ryan, blacked out before he reached the principal’s office where they are locked away. The school prohibits students from carrying their own inhalers.
Sandra Gibbons says her son told his friends he wasn’t feeling well and probably started panicking when they had to carry him to the office where the inhaler was kept.
“So as he was going to the office to get his inhaler, he kind of was having a hard time and had to be carried into the office, and by the time he got there he had blacked out,” she said. “To this day, I really don’t know how exactly the whole day unfolded for him.”
The school also confiscated spares that Ryan brought to school just in case he suffered from an attack.
“I received many a phone call stating Ryan had taken an inhaler to school and they found it in his bag and would like me to come pick it up because he wasn’t even allowed to bring it home with him,” she said. “There’s supposed to be one in the office and that’s the only one he can have. I didn’t understand why.”
Now, Gibbons is petitioning to force school boards to adopt standardized asthma management plans. She also urged all three parties to pass a private member’s bill from Progressive Conservative Jeff Yurek.
Mr. Yurek said his bill would allow students with asthma to have a puffer in their pocket or backpack and force every school board to develop a comprehensive asthma policy. “Provided the doctor said it’s fine for them to have the puffer they will have a spare puffer somewhere in the school, probably the principal’s office, but they will have [another] puffer in their pocket or in their bag, however they feel comfortable having it, but it will be on them at all times throughout the day,” said Mr. Yurek.
“Hopefully we can take an important step toward ensuring a tragedy like this never happens again.”
As of now, the policy is still in place. And Gibbons continues to fight to keep the memory of Ryan alive and prevent this from happening to anyone else.
“Unfortunately, I stand here today trying to get this bill – Ryan’s law – in place so that nobody else has to feel how I feel every day, and that’s missing my son.”
Our prayers go out to her.
SOURCE: The Globe & Mail | PHOTO CREDIT: Screengrab
