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Kimiko Shibata 🇨🇦 Profile picture
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10 Aug, 4 tweets, 1 min read
Eye exams used to be covered for all in ON. Then eye exams were limited to those with specific medical conditions and children. Optometrists pay for extremely expensive equipment out of pocket, and have to pay fo space, staff, etc but the province has been shortchanging them.
So my daughter will not be able to get an eye exam (she was due in September), along with all of my students, including newcomers to Canada. As someone with a “specific medical condition” I was lucky to squeak my exam in this week. I don’t blame my optometrist.
I blame this government and previous governments for consistently devaluing the work of optometrists in Ontario, but especially the current government for refusing to meet with the optometrists. My child and other children will suffer. Up to 80% of input is visual in school.
Without eye exams some of our most vulnerable kids will not be able to learn at school. This is huge. I spend a lot of time coaching newcomer parents and helping them to book appointments for eye exams, then helping to find funding for their kids’ glasses. This year I can’t.

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More from @ESL_fairy

Kimiko Shibata 🇨🇦 Profile picture
13 Aug
The Minister of Education used to repeat over and over that “schools are safe”, and “schools are not sources of transmission”. Now this government says we should normalize COVID-19 in our schools, that we are to expect our children to get sick and to be okay with it. #OntEd
The narrative on #SafeSeptember2021 has changed in a big way, and it’s simply not acceptable to me as a parent to be throwing our children under age 12 under the school bus. Our kids deserve a fighting chance to go to school safely, without the expectation of illness.
Dr. Kieran Moore (CMOH) says people who are unvaccinated are 8x more likely to get infected with COVID19 compared with those who are vaccinated. Literally 100% of our children under 12 are unvaccinated. They are now among the most vulnerable among us for infection potential.
Read 14 tweets
Kimiko Shibata 🇨🇦 Profile picture
11 Aug
Dr. Sharon Bal speaks to the importance of stability in schools, and has questions about testing and case and outbreak management. Many processes are still unclear. We need consistent and clear communication, predictability, structure. @SharonBalMD facebook.com/catherinefifeK…
Viewer Ian speaks about the importance of student mental health. Arisa Alexanian shares her concerns as a parent of a child with a cognitive disability. Fostering relationships in a remote learning environment is difficult to do. Students can fall through the cracks.
Arisa Alexanian notes that parents are also suffering from anxiety and mental health issues. Struggling with balancing their kids' needs as well as their own work has been a huge challenge, especially as a mom of a child with special needs. Parents need support as well.
Read 25 tweets
Kimiko Shibata 🇨🇦 Profile picture
5 Aug
Dr. Moore called out Waterloo region in his presser today, noting that we still cannot keep our cases down thanks to the Delta variant’s increased transmissibility and severity.
Yes, deaths in children are rare. But as we see a spike in pediatric cases (which we will as we enter this fourth wave with Delta at the helm), we will inevitably see more children permanently disabled by long COVID, multisystem inflammatory syndrome, and other complications.
Even in “healthy children” without any preexisting conditions, we will see complications. Achieving natural herd immunity by “normalizing COVID in schools” and letting this virus run its course in a vulnerable unvaccinated population is simply not an option for me as a parent.
Read 28 tweets
Kimiko Shibata 🇨🇦 Profile picture
23 May
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.
Read 10 tweets
Kimiko Shibata 🇨🇦 Profile picture
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 🇨🇦 Profile picture
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

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