The Mother, The Child, The School Board And The Psychic

[moggie]

Colleen Leduc is the mother of a severely autistic (non-verbal) 11-year-old girl. Due to lack of funds, the girl attends a regular public school - or did, until her mother withdrew her. One can't blame her for doing so, because the school seems to be run by dangerously credulous idiots. She received an urgent call to go to the school and talk to the principal:

The frightened mother rushed back to the campus and was stunned by what she heard - the principal, vice-principal and her daughter's teacher were all waiting for her in the office, telling her they'd received allegations that Victoria had been the victim of sexual abuse - and that the CAS had been notified.

How did they come by such startling knowledge? Leduc was incredulous as they poured out their story.

"The teacher looked and me and said: 'We have to tell you something. The educational assistant who works with Victoria went to see a psychic last night, and the psychic asked the educational assistant at that particular time if she works with a little girl by the name of "V." And she said 'yes, I do.' And she said, 'well, you need to know that that child is being sexually abused by a man between the ages of 23 and 26.'"

Victoria, who is non-verbal, had also been exhibiting sexualized behaviour in class, actions which are known to be typical of autistic behavior ... That lead authorities to suspect she had a bladder infection that may have somehow been related to the 'attack.'

http://www.citynews.ca/news/news_23845.aspx

So, on the sole word of a charlatan with a crystal ball, the school reported the "abuse" to the child protection service, and the family were investigated, running the risk of the child being taken into care, prosecutions, stigmatisation etc.

If the school were simply concerned about the child's apparently sexualised behaviour, and made a report based on that, I'd be less annoyed about this. But to give any credence to a "psychic"... FFS! Shouldn't a school, of all places, exercise some critical thinking?

[semillama]

1. I smell a lawsuit! n/t

[muriel_volestrangler]

2. Wow! That's outrageous

But under the Child and Family Services Act, anyone who works with children and has reasonable grounds to suspect a youngster is being harmed, must report it immediately - and the CAS has an obligation to follow up.

And so a case worker came to the Leduc home to discuss the allegations of sexual misconduct, only to admit there wasn't a shred of evidence that anything had ever happened at all.

Reasonable grounds. Those school officials are so dumb, they thought a psychic counted as 'reasonable grounds'? I'm pretty sure none of the psychic-supporting DUers would claim it counted as 'reasonable grounds'.

I'm not surprised the mother isn't sending her child back there. If I was a parent of any child there, I'd be wondering about transferring them to another school, if it's not too disruptive. I'd certainly want to avoid having a child start there.

Oh Canada.

[moggie]

3. Believing in psychics is just harmless fun, remember?

Why do we skeptics have to be so mean about psychics? Where's the harm? :sarcasm:

I'm pretty sure none of the psychic-supporting DUers would claim it counted as 'reasonable grounds'

I wouldn't be so sure about that.

[jberryhill]

4. Part 2.....

To: [e-mail]

I did a Tarot Card reading last night that indicated someone on your staff needed to be fired for incompetence.

In order to double check, I read some tea leaves and checked a horoscope, and these methods confirmed that one of your teaching assistants is a credulous jackass who has no business "educating" anyone.