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Kimiko Shibata 🇨🇦

23 May, 10 tweets, 4 min read

Please don’t just write letters asking for schools to be open for the sake of student mental health. Please also write letters asking for more child and youth workers, social workers, educational assistants, guidance counsellors, & funding for community mental health services.

While I know first hand that schools are the only space where some of our most vulnerable students can access food, caring adults, therapy, and mental health supports, I also know that schools shouldn’t carry this burden alone, and that there are not enough supports to go around.

It’s good to see so many people advocating for child and youth wellness right now-it really is. But please know that opening schools for a few weeks will not magically solve all of the problems that children and youth are facing in our communities. We need investment in our kids.

We need to think long term, and we need to start yesterday. Please let me know if you are working on something that is helping kids’ mental health and I will happily spread the word to get you more support and funding. And please write to your MPPs to ask for better for our kids.

@Food4KidsWR

Our friends at @Food4KidsWR have been working tirelessly throughout this pandemic to ensure that some of our most vulnerable school families have access to healthy food during this pandemic. Please consider supporting them if you are able to do so.

@Nutrition4Learn

Our friends at @Nutrition4Learn have been working hard to bring healthy snacks to students throughout this pandemic and to make menstrual products available to those who need them as well. Please consider supporting this amazing group if you can!

@FoodBankWatReg

The amazing cre @FoodBankWatReg has been working so hard during this pandemic to ensure that families in need can access food. The need continues to grow as folks face layoffs and shutdowns. Thank you for supporting these community heroes if you can.

@CMHAOntario

Our friends at @CMHAOntario are working very hard to provide services for mental health during the pandemic. Please consider supporting them if you are able to do so.

Check out this list of community mental health providers if you or your child need support. If you are lucky enough not to need their services and are in a position to donate, please consider supporting one of these groups. ementalhealth.ca/Waterloo-Regio… #MentalHealthMatters

Here’s another great list of local mental health supports. Please reach out if you or your child needs help. You won’t regret showing your child how they can advocate for support when needed. wwhealthline.ca/listServicesDe… #MentalHealthMatters

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More from @ESL_fairy

Kimiko Shibata 🇨🇦

@ESL_fairy

17 Mar

Tonight when I packed 6yo's lunch for school, I hesitated as I put in the toasted Nori that she so dearly loves. I caught myself thinking that it was pretty much the most “Asian” thing in the world… eating seaweed. 1/8

I thought about how this might centre her out as belonging to a group that is being actively targeted during this pandemic. And I hate that my mind went there. I hate that I hesitated, even for a moment, to give my child a healthy treat because it may look “too Asian”. 2/8

Today when I turned on the radio and checked social media, I was hit hard by the stories about Asian women being murdered. This is not the first time I’ve felt that familiar churning in the pit of my stomach after seeing news about Anti-Asian hate crimes in the past year. 3/8

Read 8 tweets

Kimiko Shibata 🇨🇦

@ESL_fairy

28 Oct 20

Every teacher I speak to who ends up breaking down in tears thinks that they are the “only one” feeling exhausted and overwhelmed, unable to do everything they think they should be doing. If you feel like you are drowning right now in #OntEd... please know that YOU ARE NOT ALONE.

Education workers put on a happy face and push through the fear, the pain, the anxiety, and the overwhelm. We suck it up and smile for the kids. We do such a good job of masking that it can be easy to mistake for genuine well-being... but many education workers are NOT okay.

I start the conversation with “how are things going?” followed by “how are things really going?”... because every time I ask the second question I get the truth. That there is too much happening too fast. That the learning curve is steep. That folks are hanging on by a thread.

Read 8 tweets

Kimiko Shibata 🇨🇦

@ESL_fairy

27 Oct 20

Educators wear many hats. We feed and clothe “our kids”. We listen to suicidal and self-harming kids talk about their trauma when they can’t access mental health supports. We act as “school parents” to those whose parents are unable to be present for them.

Educators make sure that kids have the words to say to stand up for themselves or others when they are being bullied. We hold space for parents as they cry and rage because their legal aid has been cancelled. We help children as they disclose incidents of abuse or neglect.

Educators advocate for the identification of needs and provision of supports to meet student needs. We write letters and fill out rating scales and observation logs for physicians and psychologists. We constantly recreate learning spaces to try to meet the needs of our learners.

Read 7 tweets

Kimiko Shibata 🇨🇦

@ESL_fairy

14 Jul 20

My head hurts from the spinning this government is doing with its “planning” for public school reopenings. As a parent, I need my child to be in school all day, every day so that I can go to work as a teacher. 1/

As a high-risk individual with preexisting medical conditions, I am frankly not convinced that my employer will be able to keep me or my students safe. 7 cents per child is simply NOT enough to safely reopen schools at full capacity. It is not enough to buy a bottle of soap. 2/

School boards should not have to take away from programs and services for our most vulnerable students in order to pay for necessary safety measures. We need to plan with our most vulnerable in mind. 3/

Read 9 tweets

Kimiko Shibata 🇨🇦

@ESL_fairy

17 Jun 20

Here is the Sick Kids document on returning to school. See my coles notes in thread below: sickkids.ca/PDFs/About-Sic…

1. Screening to prevent symptomatic individuals from entering the school-done by PARENTS at home, not school staff
2. Hand hygiene a must, scheduled washing of hands 5x per day minimum sanitizer in every class
3. Non-medical and medical face masks NOT required for children

4. Physical distancing-space between furniture if possible, no assemblies, no choir, no wind instruments, eat lunch in classrooms or staggered breaks, teach/eat outside if you can
5. Cohorting-for younger kids and kids with learning and behaviour exceptionalities

Read 8 tweets

Kimiko Shibata 🇨🇦

@ESL_fairy

3 Feb 20

@Sflecce

Come visit a real public school, @Sflecce. Come tell newcomer refugee students why their ESL support was cut. Come tell children with learning disabilities why their special education reading classes were cancelled. Come tell kids why the courses they need to graduate were cut.1/

Come tell children with #Autism that their safety and academic success at school is not as high a priority as tax cuts. Come tell children in crisis that they will have to wait even longer for assessments and services, and that it’s okay if some of them die while they wait. 2/

Come tell our children that they will have to just learn to deal with not having their needs met, and that escalation and classroom evacuations are just part of how we do school now. Come tell them that walking the halls with an EA is the same thing as receiving an education. 3/

Read 6 tweets

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