Febrile seizures keep boy out of school

An Athabasca-area mom has pulled her child from school because of a policy that prohibits bus drivers from giving him medication for a condition he suffers.

Rosealee Fulk is now paying $14 daily to send her son, Clayton, to a babysitter after informing Aspen View School Division of her intent to take her child out of school Oct. 24.

"I think it's terrible that a bus driver can't get out of her seat to help a child," said Fulk.

Clayton suffers from febrile seizures, a condition that sees him go into convulsions for between two and four minutes at a time.

When he suffers a seizure, the boy needs to be given a pill that prevents him from seizing again.

Fulk figures school bus companies don't want to assume the legal liabilities of giving medication.
She says the school division should change its policies to allow bus drivers to give medication to children in distress.

She said she's been told bus drivers are instructed to pull over and call an ambulance should one of their children need medical attention.

Fulk admitted the school board offered to give her child an aide to ride the bus from her home but she said she wants the worker to meet her and Clayton at her place of employment in the morning because she faces a 35-minute commute.

Now Clayton, in Grade 5 at Landing Trail Intermediate School, is "scared to death he's going to fail," Fulk said.

Aspen View School's board chairman David Dacyk said he wasn't aware of the situation and administration deals with such scenarios.

Dacyk said he would check into the situation. But he said the division's policy is to "do whatever is required to ensure safe transportation to school.

"We'll try our best to help."

During a febrile seizure, a child often loses consciousness, shakes and moves limbs.

Less commonly, the child becomes rigid or has twitches in only a portion of the body, such as an arm or a leg, or on the right or the left side only.

One in 25 children suffers from febrile seizures, according to the United States-based National Institute for Neurological Disorders and Stroke.