(no subject)

[velvetpage]

Okay, scenario is as follows. An American woman marries a Canadian man and moves here illegally. She has a nine-year-old daughter, no ex appears to have any say in this child, and the child is also American. The school board (my employer) has denied the girl the right to attend school because, as an illegal alien, no one will be paying her fees. They want Mom to pay the fees ($9000 approximately) so she can go to school. Mom can't afford it, Stepdad can't even afford to sponsor his new wife properly or adopt the child let alone pay the fees, and the child has been homeschooled for two years as a result. She is not learning, probably because Mom doesn't know what she's doing and doesn't know how to find out. Oh, and the girl is special-needs, too, which means the education that's right for her would probably cost a lot more than the province would pay for to begin with.

[Poll #419060]

Comments

[neosis.livejournal.com]

I can't put the blame on the school board, they may not be legally allowed to aid and abet known illegal aliens. As I understand the girl was born in the U.S. and the parents haven't taken any of the reasonable steps to make sure she can get an education (adoption or application for legal immigrant status or Canadian citizenship). Frankly, it sounds like the mother is risking deportation, I expect the only reason she and her child haven't been deported is her marriage.

If the daughter weren't special needs this wouldn't be too big of an issue, the school board could have let her slip through the cracks into the school system with very little trouble, however, since she is special needs they couldn't do that.

I think the fault lies with the mother for prematurely sneaking into the country, she may have been in love, but she's jeopardized her child's welfare by knowingly disobeying the rules.

[velvetpage.livejournal.com]

I agree about the school board; when they found out about this, they should have immediately informed Immigration Canada to get the matter resolved somehow. The process for special ed is very, very heavy on the paperwork, and this child would not have gotten past it. Slipping her in the back door, as has been done in other, similar cases, wouldn't work here.

I find it interesting that they've now got so much publicity, Immigration is going to be hard-pressed to follow their own rules regarding this family. You're right, also, that she's risking deportation.