Edmonton girl, 8, with rare genetic disorder has not attended school since educational assistants’ strike began Jan. 13

Every morning, eight-year-old Isabelle watches from the window as her two sisters Madison and Olivia leave to walk to school.

“Izzy gets so excited, because she thinks she’s going to go. But then, she can’t,” Madison said.

That’s because Isabelle, who has a rare genetic disorder called Angelman syndrome, needs specialized care at school – something she can’t get while Edmonton Public School Board’s educational assistants remain on strike.

“The sad and frustrated look she has on her face every day watching her sisters go to school would break your heart,” said Isabelle’s mother Bridey Roberts. “We’ve really tried to teach them throughout their lives that you stand up for what’s right. … You get out there, you raise awareness, you tell people what’s wrong and how to improve.

“And it’s really, really hard to just send two of them off to school in the morning and not the other one.”

Isabelle attends a school with a special program to support her learning. It relies heavily on EAs, who have been on the picket lines in Edmonton demanding better wages since Jan. 13. Isabelle has not been allowed to attend school since then.

“Isabelle needs one on one care, 24 hours a day,” her mother said. “She has seizures, she needs help with feeding and bathrooming and lifts to get in and out of her wheelchair and any of her equipment that she has at school.”

“It makes me feel really, really upset and really angry,” added her older sister Madison. “Because she deserves to have the same rights that we do.”

Madison says in her Grade 6 class, they are learning about equality, equity, and inclusion. She says she doesn’t see any of those values reflected in her sister’s situation.

“She has the human right to be able to be at school,” Madison told CityNews. “Just like every other kid. Like me. We’re all supposed to be at school. We’re supposed to learn. We have friends at school. But then, Izzy’s not allowed to go to school for… we don’t even know how long this is going to take.”

More than 3,000 Edmonton Public School Board education support staff demanding better wages have been on strike for five weeks. Many students with special needs are not attending class during the strike.

Support staff at the Sturgeon Public School Division and in Fort McMurray are also striking, with those at the Parkland School Division slated to join them with “work to rule” job action Tuesday.

Despite the frustration from Isabelle’s mother and sisters, they don’t blame the education assistants and believe they should be paid a living wage. Their message is to decision-makers who, they say, should have established a contingency plan to ensure children like Isabelle did not pay the price.

“I want those EAs to be paid fairly. That’s a dispute between the two of them,” Roberts said. “It shouldn’t come back on my little girl and our family and thousands of other families.

“Just because somebody isn’t there to do their job doesn’t mean that she doesn’t get to do her job. Her job is to learn and play and have fun. She’s a kid.”