Officious Paternalism - Injurious to Health

"So, as he was going to the office to get his inhaler, he kind of was having a hard time and had to be carried into the office, and by the time he got there he had blacked out. To this day I really don't know how exactly the whole day unfolded for him."
"I received many a phone call stating Ryan had taken an inhaler to school and they found it in his bag and would like me to come pick it up because he wasn't even allowed to bring it home with him." "There's supposed to be one in the office and that's the only one he can have. I didn't understand why."
Sandra Gibbons, Staffordville, south-western Ontario

"Provided the doctor said it's fine for them to have the puffer, they will have a spare puffer somewhere in the school, probably the principal's office, but they will have (another) puffer in their pocket or in their bag, however they feel comfortable having it, but it will be on them at all times throughout the day."
"Hopefully we can take an important step toward ensuring a tragedy like this never happens again."
Ontario Progressive Conservative MPP Jeff Yurek

Ontario schools currently do not permit students with asthma to carry puffers with them. Sandra Gibbons, mother of 12-year-old Ryan Gibbons has been busy with a petition asking the government of Ontario to make certain that the province's school boards adopt standardized asthma management plans. She has urged all three political parties at Queen's Park to pass a private member's bill being presented by Jeff Yurek, Member of Provincial Parliament, to that effect.

The Ontario Lung Association is behind Mr. Yurek's bill. That charitable health-focused group emphasizes that there are 1.9-million people in the province suffering from asthma, that number inclusive of a half-million children. "Bill 135 will ensure that all schools in Ontario are safe for our children, especially the one in five with asthma", said the Association's spokeswoman, Andrea Stevens.

Sandra Gibbons is particularly anxious to have this bill pass. At the very least, as a memorial to her son. For the very best, to ensure that what occurred to her son will not happen to anyone else's child. Who, on October 9, 2012 suffered a severe asthma attack at school during recess. Ryan Gibbons informed his friends he wasn't feeling well. He was incapable of making it on his own to the school office where school board rules held that the puffer that he needed would be available only under supervision at the school office.

Whatever happened at that juncture made little difference to the outcome. Ryan died, at age twelve from a sever asthma attack that he could have been able on his own, with the use of his personal inhaler, to prevent from robbing him of life.

Ryan's friends did their best to carry him through to the office. The inhalers, kept under lock and key, including those that the school staff routinely confiscated from children bringing them on their person into school, had to be asked for, to enable their use. Instead of Ryan carrying the life-saving device he needed to ensure he would be able to meet emergencies he well knew how to look after himself, he fell victim to a harmfully ignorant, paternalistic attitude of supervision.

The cost of that attitude was a young boy's life.