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New rules put an end to ‘schools of choice’
Michael Mahoney died at 21 from a fatal dose of opioids, just a day after his application to a Tier 5 treatment centre was accepted. His mother, Jan Mahoney, now says the application and waiting process for getting Michael into treatment took far too long. (Photo/Jan Mahoney)
Nina Grossman News Staff
‘The system has fallen apart’ Victoria woman’s son died a day after being accepted into treatment Nina Grossman News Staff
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No snow fell on Victoria leading up to Christmas 2018. Yet 21-year-old Michael Mahoney’s body went undiscovered for five days after he overdosed on fentanyl in his pine-green pickup truck, parked in a busy downtown lot on Wharf Street. There were two parking tickets on the dash when his friend found the truck and opened the door to find
that Michael’s eight-year battle with A stack of papers sits on the table, addiction had finally ended – just pages of nauseating red tape detailnot the way it should have. ing the last decade spent trying to save Michael’s life. The Descent “There’s so many places where the The day before he died, Michael system has fallen apart,” she says. “I had been approved for treatment at just don’t think that it should take a facility in Burnaby. His mother, as long as it took to get somebody Jan Mahoney, had been working into treatment.” Mahoney looks tired, her hands with his counsellor at the Victoria Youth Clinic and pushing to get his shaking but her voice solid. She was application approved for months. recently diagnosed with multiple She says the system failed her son. sclerosis after spending months in And it might be failing hundreds the hospital for spastic paraplegia. of others. From her hospital bed, she slogged “It’s devastating,” Mahoney said, through the bureaucratic barriers sitting at the dining room table in of getting Michael into treatment, her Saanich home in March. The making daily phone calls about Hartland Avenue property is se- the progress of his application – cluded, the home perched amidst all while he descended further into spring foliage up a winding, newly addiction. Continued A7 paved driveway.
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After months of community and school meetings, consultations and surveys, Greater Victoria School District 61 (SD61) approved new catchment boundaries for the 2020/2021 school year – and the changes eliminate all ‘schools of choice’ in the district. South Park Family School, Cloverdale Traditional School and École Beausoleil Victoria (the Bank Street facility) will become catchment schools – a change introduced to address population density in the core areas of Victoria and Saanich. The facility on Bank Street will become a single-track school and no longer offer French immersion. SD61 has 47 schools across six municipalities in Greater Victoria. The district says an additional 1,000 students have registered in its schools in the last four years – putting pressure on a number of full or near-full facilities. Continued A12
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