Mother of autistic son calling on province for education help

“Please don’t let people with special needs down,” says Marie Ismé, mother of an autistic teen who has been kicked out of two different centers. She’s pleading for Quebec to help her son get an education. Brittany Henriques reports.

Marie Ismé is at wits end, pleading for help and calling on the Quebec government to act now to help her 18-year-old autistic son get access to the education he deserves.

CityNews brought you the story of Brandon-Lee Paris in April. Ismé claimed her son was being discriminated against due to the colour of his skin after he was expelled from his special needs school North of Montreal when he was 14 years old.

She says the school deemed him a safety risk, an assessment his mother said the teen’s doctors disagree with.

“[I’m] very emotional because I feel like once again, like been let down, you know, like, I believe in the system But now not so much,” said Ismé.

“Please don’t let the people with special needs down because they need help.”

teen in blue t-shirt

Brandon-Lee Paris. (Pictures Courtesy: Fo Niemi, CRARR)

Last month, Paris ran away twice from a rehabilitation centre his mom had placed him in four days a week.

They called police and the young man was tasered. He was subsequently kicked out of the centre.

“Brandon was a double victim because of the event at La Myriade. The day centre that Brandon was going to four days a week called me and told me Brandon wouldn’t be able to go back to the day centre. So now Brandon is home 24/7 and he has no services to help him,” explained Ismé.


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She feels her son is regressing as a result.

“When he started to go to the extent they come to pick it, they came to pick him up, everything. He was really happy to go there. And even then, they were saying how surprised they were about his progress,” Ismé said.

“It’s like I’m thinking about having a teacher going there and they were really thinking about him going back to school. So the difference between a few months ago when he was going there and now it’s I don’t know.

“He can’t really talk to me … I just see him going down right now. So that’s my worry, is that he’s going to go backward,” she explained.

CityNews reached out to the Quebec Minister of Education, Bernard Drainville, for a comment but have not heard back at this time.

“I asked them if they can answer. There must be someplace to back an entire province or nearby that have like a facility that’s safe for my son. So I really hope for a Christmas miracle right now that somebody is going to hear my story and call them and tell them that they do have a space for him that he can continue to be able to for his development and his education.”

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