Everyone has a right to an education. EVERYONE.

I hate bureaucrats. I always have and I always will. I hate anyone who feels that words on a piece of paper are more important than people, their rights and their dignity.

Here in the city, there’s this disabled teen who’s not going to school because the school board won’t allow his service dog on school property. Why? Because it’s in the rules. It’s school policy. Because THEY SAID SO.!!!

These people don’t care about this teen’s right to maintain his dignity. They don’t care about this teen’s wish to maintain some independence. All they care about is their stupid rules. No running in the halls. No loud music. All tests must be written with a HB pencil. NO INDIVIDUALITY !!!! I just love the excuses the school board is giving. Some people are scared of dogs, or someone might be allergic. So instead they decide the discriminate against a disabled teen. Nice. Oh, did I mention that the dog is a POODLE!!!

The part that I love most though is when the school board said if the parents were to submit written documentation from the teen’s doctor, parents and the people who donated the dog, then they would ‘review’ the policy. Great; more paperwork for the bureaucrats. Here’s an idea. How about all you paper pushing jackasses lift your heads out of those kilometers of rules and actually visit the guy and see for themselves, but we couldn’t do that. Nooo… Then this person would actually have a face, a life, instead of being a case number.

Well you paper pushers keep on looking at your documents because you’ll be receiving more of them, from the parent’s lawyer and Alberta Human Rights Commission. The parents have filed a complaint.

Education is a right in Canada and right now the Calgary Board of Education is denying this teen the right to an education. That is inexcusable. The Calgary board should be ashamed of itself.

My 2 bytes.