Funding flap keeps native boy out of Winnipeg school

Last Updated: Monday, October 29, 2007 | 9:33 AM CT

CBC News

An aboriginal woman living in Winnipeg says a city school division advised her to hand her grandchild over to Child and Family Services as a means of registering him for school.

Eileen Apetagon recently moved to Winnipeg from the Norway House Cree Nation. She has cared for her 13-year-old grandson for several years, so he moved with her.

When she tried to enrol the boy in school, she said, the principal told her that her grandson is not funded to attend a school in the division because his parents still live in Norway House.

Officials with the St. James-Assiniboia School Division told her she had two options, she said: adopt her grandson, or put him into the care of Child and Family Services.

"What she said was, the easiest way for my grandson to enrol at the school is to go through CFS," Apetagon told CBC News. "I said, 'No. That's not going to happen.' I will not allow my grandson to be involved with the Child and Family Services system.

"You know, this was very insulting," she said. "I felt a sense of anger and disbelief, like, I couldn't believe what I was hearing."

School division officials refused to comment, saying only that they were following the Public Schools Act.

Ron Evans, head of the Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs, said he's heard of similar cases. Evans is asking Education Minister Peter Bjornson to change the law.

"That policy has to be revisited," he said. "They need to be sensitive to our culture, to our cultural practices, when it comes to parenting."

A spokesperson for Bjornson said his office is doing everything it can to ensure Apetagon's grandson attends school as soon as possible.

The province will review the case to determine if any policy changes are needed.

CBC News