Educational harm
The emotional, cognitive, and academic consequences of exclusion, burnout, unsupported needs, and systemic discrimination in school settings.
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Collective punishment: unjust in schools, unjust everywhere
Collective punishment—punishing a group for the actions of an individual—is widely recognised as a violation of human rights. It is condemned in international law, yet it persists in various forms worldwide. From China’s persecution of human rights defenders’ families to Israel’s blockade of Gaza and the Taliban’s illogical governance, collective punishment disproportionately harms innocent people.…
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The stories we carry: how schoolyard legends and classroom fear shape us
When I was in grade three, I attended an alternative school that felt like a sun-dappled meadow. We painted. We played outside. We had a math teacher who made learning feel like a game, not a test. There was room to breathe. I remember it as freedom. Then, in grade four, everything changed. My new…
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Parenting through gaslighting and grief
In the early days, our relationship was luminous, almost feverishly bright with attention and agreement and what I understood then as love—its intensity, its precision, the way it seemed to reach for every part of me, even the parts I kept hidden, even the ones I feared were too strange or fragile to show. I…
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Maternal scream: embodied rage in a system that punishes and smiles
This rage didn’t appear in a vacuum. It was not spontaneous. It is the inevitable consequence of a system that harms children while demanding that mothers smile back. It is what happens when a process is engineered to fail your child and then punishes you for noticing. They built the conditions. You simply refused to…
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Shut it down: Why POPARD cannot be trusted to support neurodivergent children
We asked for help.We got a behaviour chart. We invited experts into our child’s life, hoping they would help school staff understand his anxiety, his trauma responses, his fiercely sensitive nervous system. We asked for relational strategies grounded in respect and attunement. We shared research. We named his diagnosis. We explained, in plain terms, what…
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How regressive school policies limit inclusion
On the first day of school, it all looked so promising that it seemed almost too good to be true—the hallway bulletin boards overflowed with vibrant slogans about kindness, leadership, and community belonging, while the principal’s welcome message spoke in glowing terms about student voice, shared responsibility, and the promise of a positive school culture…
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Restraint and isolation in British Columbia schools
Physical restraint and isolation—sometimes termed “seclusion”—remain legally unregulated in British Columbia schools, even as provincial guidelines seek to limit their use to moments of extreme risk. Physical restraint is defined as any method of restricting a student’s freedom of movement to maintain safety, while seclusion involves involuntary confinement in a space from which the student…
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How classroom values become ableist barriers
There is no such thing as a neutral rule. Every expectation reflects a theory of the child: what is normal, what is ideal, what is possible. And in most classrooms, these theories are wrong. I was given a list of behavioural values from my child’s class—Division 3. It included items like: stay in the group,…
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Profound loss amplifies calls for better training
I was in the car with my children when I first heard the story of Chase, the 15-year-old boy who was shot and killed by police, in Surrey. It’s deeply distressing to hear this, knowing full well that my kids are recalibrating their worldview. Kids can be shot. My children sometimes process auditory information more…
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What policy says about collective punishment in schools
Collective punishment is never explicitly mentioned in the School Act or BC education policies, but it is made very clear that the system is meant to be fair, accountable, and respectful. The School act states the discipline in schools must be “similar to that of a kind, firm and judicious parent” (Section 76(3)). I consider…
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When autistic girls fawn and schools look away
They told her to be polite while she was being harmed. Now they call her difficult for saying no. Jeannie never screamed—never yelled or stormed out or flipped a desk or tore paper into confetti; instead, she froze, and in that freezing, she vanished from their view. No one interrupted the boy when he joked…
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Teacher Misconduct Case
A recent case involving Alexandra Clare McLean, a BC teacher disciplined for yelling, humiliating, and physically handling students, highlights the urgent need for stronger accountability in schools. Despite multiple suspensions, warnings, and training, McLean’s harmful behaviour continued. This case reflects the broader issue of harmful disciplinary tactics like collective punishment. Both create fear, shame, and…
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What families learn from the inside of exclusion
We weren’t trained for this. We were not briefed, warned, or prepared. We entered the public school system, bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, like most parents do—with trust, with hope, and with a belief, however weathered, in the promise that schools would try to do right by our children. What we didn’t understand was how quickly that…
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The cost of compliance – the foundational critique and case for change
When children are dysregulated, the response from educators is too often punitive. For neurodivergent students in particular, the cost of these responses is high: shame, trauma, social exclusion, and a deep erosion of trust. But it does not have to be this way. Restorative alternatives are not new. They are ancient practices found in many…
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Collective punishment in schools teaches the wrong lesson
Imagine you’re at work, focused on your tasks, when your boss announces that no one can leave until two distracted coworkers finish their work. You’d be outraged, right? Yet, this exact approach—punishing an entire group for the actions of a few—is sometimes still used in elementary classrooms. In a recent article, Blair questions the pedagogical…
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A teacher’s perspective on collective punishment
In this powerful TikTok video, Mr Trayvon reflects on his own past use of collective punishment in the classroom—and why he no longer believes it serves students. With candour and humility, he acknowledges the harm these practices cause, particularly to children already carrying the weight of trauma, neurodivergence, or social marginalisation. His shift away from…
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Collective punishment–fair or farce?
The practice of collective punishment in schools sparks strong opinions among educators, parents, and students alike. While some argue it helps maintain control and sends a message about group accountability, critics point out that it unfairly penalizes uninvolved individuals and damages trust within the classroom. This article dives into the debate, exploring: The piece concludes…
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New research highlights the harmful effects of collective punishment on group relations
A study published in Political Psychology examines how collective punishment—punishing an entire group for the actions of a few—impacts intergroup relations. Researchers Mete Sefa Uysal, Sami Çoksan, and Thomas Kessler found that collective punishment: These findings, based on experiments in Turkey and Germany with over 2,000 participants, reveal that collective punishment not only fails to resolve conflicts…
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Why collective punishment doesn’t work, based on scientific evidence
When we challenge collective punishment, defenders often fall back on one refrain: it works. They say it fosters accountability, motivates group norms, and deters misbehaviour. They claim it teaches responsibility. But what if these assumptions are not only unjust, but false? A peer-reviewed study published in Scientific Reports dismantles this defence. Titled Measuring the efficacy of…
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Three-quarters of Nunavut teachers witnessed or dealt with violence at school: survey
In June 2024, the Nunavut Teachers’ Association released findings from a territory-wide survey that captured what many educators already knew: violence and burnout in Nunavut schools are endemic—and escalating. Teachers weren’t asking for harsher discipline. They were asking for help. Violence isn’t the story—it’s the signal Educators in the survey overwhelmingly described these behaviours not as…
