By Kendall Worth!
Carrie Ann Bugden is a student with disabilities studying psychology, youth and family studies, at Mount Saint Vincent University. I have written about her case previously. In Part I I give a basic introduction to who Carrie Ann Bugden is and gave the scoop of her situation. Then in Part#2 I report on her move from her Westwood residence to her current housing at Assisi Hall. This move was a move she did not ask for but was forced onto her by the university. Different points are made throughout Parts 1 and 2 as to why she feels this way. Carrie Ann Bugden however feels strongly that the university would not have forced this move onto her if the university had of disciplined her former Westwood roommates. Different factors in Parts one and two explain.
In Part#3 I will elaborate on problems she described while living at Westwood from November 2022 till August 2023. We have been holding off on Part#3 while going through some meetings with University Officials to get some of her multiple issues resolved. Even though there will be more on why Carrie Anne is considering (but has not made a 100% certain decision yet) leaving Nova Scotia explained later in this current BLOG, as I previously mentioned in this post, Carrie Ann was informed by the university, that she has to make her decision by the end of November. If she does decide to move off campus (likely to move home to Newfoundland) she has to be off campus by Mid December. One of the things Carrie Ann is currently working toward is to not have to resort to making that decision to leave Nova Scotia. More on the latest regarding this, and reasons why, will be explained later in the BLOG post.
But First:
Before getting into the nitty/gritty of the update, first there are other important factors that are related to the mutual factors that come with this story:
First, in several of my other posts, I talk about the new federal disability benefit they are creating. The Carrie Ann Bugden Story builds the case, as explained here, on why the the Canadian Disability Benefit which the Federal Government is working on, is needed. This new Disability Benefit should not be a disincentive for persons with disabiblties to be employed, or for for them to further their education. Also, this story about Carrie Ann gives a strong message about respecting disability rights as posts I have previously published point out.
Second the Carrie Anne Bugden story gives a strong message about ableism. We should not be treating persons with disabilities like they are actually disabled. Respect goes both ways.
And the final important message of Carrie Ann’s story is that – if Nova Scotia had a different and a better system of income assistance, and mental health supports, then this would have solved some of her problems at the University right there. One example of this is, if she had more money to live on while being a student, she would have had more freedom to live off campus.
This story is important, because, as pointed out here Carrie Ann’s Situation is one of 2 I interviewed for this post, pointing out that the University enforced this move in the midst of a Major Housing Crisis.
Now to get into the latest:
Since Part#2 of her story got posted, Carrie Ann has been going through mixed emotions and feelings adjusting to her new surroundings at Assisi Hall. She finds it is not as accessible as the University officials made it out to be. IN august, Carrie Ann had two meetings with with University Officials in August (I am not going to mention the names of the University officials we met with) which started the process to get resolution for her issues. Over these past several weeks living at Assisi Hall she has reflected back to her time at Westwood and remembers:
Carrie Ann will never forget about the times when her former Room-mates made comments right to her face, using a very mean and bossy attitude, that they do not feel comfortable living with someone in a wheel chair and that they should have been warned about this.
In one incident Carrie Ann describes a time when one partial Room-mate treated her like a child. She told Carrie Ann to “get into her room”, in a bossy mean attitude. This Roommate told Carrie Ann she would “take matters into her own hands if she does not listen.”
Another time, she was told by her own room-mates that she should be in an institution( for people like her.)
Carrie Ann overall felt that her former Westwood room-mates were discriminating against her, and bullying her about her disability requiring her to be in a wheelchair.
Carrie Ann feels strongly that, if those altercations between her and her room-mates never started then getting forced to move out of Westwood would have never had happened. These days Carrie Ann is feeling traumatized and the pressure to make a decision by the end of November is not helping. It seems in Carrie Ann’s situation the stress of day-to-day life is putting a lot of stress on her. She is calling her new room at Assisi, “a box,” compared to what she has had when she was at Westwood. According to University Officials it is very unlikely that they will ever put her back at Westwood.
One thing Carrie Ann is hoping will come out of meetings with University Officials
At this time Carrie Ann is seeking mental health support and the only service she can access, besides myself being there for her for Support, is the bit of support she can access on the University campus. She cannot access the mental health system here in Nova Scotia because she is not a Nova Scotia resident. Some concerned people in her life are telling her that returning home to Newfoundland might be the best thing to do for her mental health. Carrie Ann knows and understands, however, that she cannot just drop everything and move home.
Good news that Came Carrie Ann’s way, since the posting of part#2, is an on campus professor who is also a disability scholar (The name I will not mention because I do not know if I have permission to publicly mention her name) got appointed by the University to act as support for Carrie Ann during this academic year. I accompanied Carrie Ann to her first meeting, with her on campus support, and we had a very productive meeting. I cannot get into the detail of what we discussed, but it covered why she caused the incidents that could have gotten her expelled from campus through to solutions to several issues. I myself was happy to find out that Carrie Ann was going to have this on campus support because she really needs any support she can get.
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| Assisi Hall at MSVU |
One possibility Carrie Ann and I did discuss, while I was spending time with her for support, is the possibility of her staying in Halifax and transferring to Dalhousie. Carrie is open to the idea. However, because Dalhousie is much more expensive then Mount Saint Vincent she would need a scholarship or bursary to go there. The big question she is asking herself these days is how much longer she can stay at the mount when her accommodation at Assissi Hall is not as accessible as Westwood. Westwood was also much better for her mental health, than Assisi is.
I will end Part#3 of her story by bringing up a question that the University asked Carrie Ann at more than one meeting… what options did she think they could have explored to keep her at Westwood.
Carrie Ann was asked if by University Officials if she feels their options the University could have explored to keep her at Westwood?
I am going to answer this question by bringing forward solution of my own. I believe that a room mate agreement telling Carrie Ann’s room-mates that they are going to have to respect her disabilities, and as part of this roommate agreement, a memo of understanding is signed saying that her room-mates understands that there may be times that Carrie Ann needs their assistance. The room-mate agreement would need to point out strongly that discrimination toward her will not be tolerated. If her room-mates break that agreement, then disciplinary action will be taken by the University. This is the solution I myself suggested in the meeting I accompanied Carrie Ann to, with 2 different University officals.
I will end Part#3 of her story by saying if the public was better educated about able-ism issues then maybe this discrimination experience of Carrie Ann’s would never have happened.
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