Why I need to move my family away from Terrace.

Hi Everyone.  This is an absolutely heartbreaking thing to write, but here we are.  Over the past 2-3 years it has become abundantly clear to both me and Jessica that we do not belong in Terrace.  The main reason for this is the absolutely abhorrent treatment of my daughter in the various aspects in her life in Terrace.

​

This is about my daughter.  I need to tell you about her because this is all about her.  Since she was born, she was the most important thing in both mine and Jessica's life.  Her life was kinda tough - she had no extended family around, and when covid hit we were completely isolated.  She grew up a little shy.  But this kid has a good heart.  She is kind and compassionate.  She cares how other kids feel, she cares how animals feel.  She has a stash of candy and we dont need to police it.  She is aware of how sugar affects her mood and will self-regulate her intake.  I cant help but chuckle everytime she asks "Can I have this candy?" because when I was a kid that candy would be GONE - eat first and ask questions later.  Shes and only child, so she has that entitlement, and has had to learn to share. She is truly a good kid, but of course I'm biased.

​

My daughter loved dance.  She wanted to be a ballerina (as many little girls do).  When she did her first class at AIM, they immediately asked me if she could attend the advanced junior ballet class right after.  I was so proud of her, and she was so excited to learn.  She advanced quickly and was requested to be in company dance - she wanted to try, but she soon realized the intensity was a little too much for her and decided to wait until the next year to go into company.  Next year came, and she was excited to do company dance.  She did one year of company and 3 dances that year in front of a crowd at 7 years of age - she killed it!  We were so happy she found something she loved and even better she was good at it!  However, there were things throughout this time which gave me pause.  At one point in her first year of dance she was starting to get overwhealmed and needed a little break.  The instructors implored me to force her to come to practice.  I refused.  I knew she just needed a little break (She was 6 years old at the time) and she would be back at it - 3 weeks later she was back at practice.  But the facade that AIM puts forth was starting to crack.
I saw the nature of this studio during their yearly "team building" day.  What I observed is the students being split up into teams and then they competed against each other.  Obviously I was watching my daughter closely - she was one of the smallest kids out there, and the other kids on her team were getting mad at her for not performing to their level. The other thing that stood out to me was that guest instructors were helping some of the teams but not all of them - my daughters team was not helped by any instructor.  At the end, the winning team brought home a huge bag of candy...  My daughter was obviously discouraged.  The second year in a row that this happened she was devastated.  She didnt understand why she was being treated differently.
During her second year of company dance she had 4 dances to memorize and learn.  She did 2 at the early meet.  When training for dance 3 and 4 she crashed.  She started to get anxiety attacks on entering the studio doors and refused to go into the studio itself.  When one of the staff came out she tried to coax my daughter into the studio whilst she was in the middle of the panic attack.  I wanted to leave, to get her away from the threat - this staff member thought differently.  She tried to invoke "Think of how you are letting down your teammates" - which absolutely sent my daughter.  She started crying and getting more upset.  We left the studio, never to return.  My daughter - who was so passionate about dance, watched ballet cartoons all day, danced around the house to have fun - it was all gone.  She started to have dance parties with mom just recently.  She doesn't mention organized dance or learning dance ever.  We tried asking her about it, she told us the teachers would get mad at them if they didn't do well in class and would yell alot.
AIM destroyed a passion of my daughters.

​​

Over the past 2 years parents of other kids would decline play dates.  My daughter wasn't wanted, even if other kids wanted to play with her.  I remember a couple of kids came by to play with my daughter - they said they were going to hang out in their back yard.  I asked the kids if their mom knew, they said they had other kids coming over.  Off they went, and I went to find my wife to ask her to contact the parent as I did not have the contact list.  As we were searching the contact list my daughter was back home crying.  The mom had flipped out and yelled at her kids to take my daughter back home.  
Hey I get it, but the kids were playing.  That child never said hi to my daughter again.
She did have friends that were like her - but they had moved away.  I guess we should have saw that as the sign that it was.
 

We heard about the name calling, the "bugging" and thought that it was all normal childhood stuff.  However we saw she was wilting.  She was sad coming home from school every day.  No play dates.  No birthday party invites.  Two years of this as a 6-8 year old.  We tried to figure out what the issue was.  We asked her teachers, but everything was "fine".  We asked if she wanted to move schools, but she insisted that she wanted to learn French

​​​

This came to a head near the end of last school year.  My daughter attended Ecole Mountainview up till the start of this year.  My wife and I were called as an "event" had happened at school.- two boys, both of which has a history of bullying my daughter - "accidentally" wrapped a skipping rope around her neck.  Obviously this was terrifying for her and us.  After a "investigation" from Steve Wallace - the principle of the Ecole Mountainview - it was determined this was an "accident due to hands on behavior".​ (I have the email reciepts)

There are security cameras around Ecole Mountainview, but conveniently they weren't functional to view this event. 

Feel free to think about how you would feel if you were told that your daughter had a skipping rope wrapped around her neck and it was deemed an "accident".

​

We tried to move her schools against her wishes to Uplands Elementary.  We contacted them 3 separate times, only to be ignored, or not followed up with.

​

This should have been enough, but I was blinded by my own life and comfort.  I had a great practice.  A solid patient base, and I was being effective in my work.  We moved our clinic into our home.  Things were comfortable - everything I had worked my whole career for was coming to fruition.  My wife and I decided to let her try one more year in Terrace.  Nothing changed, and my daughter started to have worsening anxiety.  She was waking up in the middle of the night with stomach aches and would pace around the house crying at 2 am.

​​

There was one bright spot in Terrace for my daughter  which was the gymnastics club.  One of the instructors there - Irma was very kind to my daughter.  She was good to my daughter even though she was super clingy.  Unfortunately, the club couldn't be her safe place as there were too many things working against her - eventually she stopped all extra-curriculars.

​​

We had enough.  I asked my wife to bring her to her mom's house in Southern Alberta.  She was enrolled in a French immersion school. (On my daughters request).  The transformation has been immediate and drastic.  My wife tells me there are no more panic attacks.  No more tummy aches.  No more waking in the middle of the night and pacing around the house.  She was invited to two birthday parties in her first 2 weeks of being there.  There are lingering issues.  She will need some therapy that is unavailable in Terrace - I know, because we looked.
 

That's it guys.  The people that were responsible for my child's safety in Terrace failed.  They had no issue protecting other children though.  

​​

There IS a reason why Terrace cant retain doctors or professionals.  One of my child's friends was the daughter of an MD that left town - for many of the same reasons as above.  I'll never forget what she said to my daughter during a sleep-over once - "Us olive skins have to stick together".  Both of them had darker complexions due to their ancestry. I wish I would have taken that MD's example and moved sooner to save my daughter some suffering.

​​

Take care everyone,
Dr Daniel Yee, ND