Home » About K12 complaints » Glossary
normalised harm
Normalised harm refers to harmful conditions or practices that become accepted as ordinary within an institution. When harm is normalised, individuals working within the system may come to see these outcomes as unavoidable or typical rather than recognising them as problems requiring change. In school environments, patterns such as chronic exclusion, repeated under-support, or humiliation of struggling students may become normalised over time.
-
What if my child is scared to go to school?
When a child is afraid to go to school, it is often treated as a behaviour problem: refusal, avoidance, or anxiety that needs to be managed. But fear rarely appears without a reason. Children are much more likely to engage in…
-
Is my child’s school gaslighting me?
Institutional gaslighting occurs when a school or district systematically undermines your perception of events, dismisses your documented concerns, or reframes harm as misunderstanding—leaving you to question whether the problem lies with you rather than the system. This form of psychological manipulation…
-
What if the school says “this is just how we do things”?
Institutional normalisation is not a legal defence, and it is not a satisfactory answer. “This is our practice” is one of the most common responses families receive when they challenge something a school has been doing for a long time without…
-
What’s the risk of waiting too long to escalate a complaint?
The biggest risk is not conflict. It is lost options. BC’s formal complaint pathways carry hard deadlines that run whether or not you are aware of them. A human rights complaint must generally be filed within one year of the last…
-
My autistic daughter masks at school and collapses afterwards. The school says she’s fine. How can I get help?
This page addresses what to do when your autistic daughter is camouflaging at school, experiencing significant distress at home, and the school is using her apparent coping as evidence that she requires no support. It covers the research on masking, the…
-
Am I being unreasonable or asking for too much?
Requesting legally required accommodation is not unreasonable. Feeling “too much” is a common effect of repeated denial, tone policing, and procedural delay—not a reflection of the legitimacy of your request. What the law guarantees The BC Human Rights Code establishes that every child…