Shaun Newman Podcast - Ep. #204 - Sue Stybel

Episode Date: September 17, 2021

She lives near St. Paul Alberta with her husband & 3 children Worked in longterm care from sept 2020 – June 2021 & discusses how she was bullied towards taking the vaccine She’s a mom, wife & concerned citizen Let me know what you think text me 587-217-8500

This is Glenn Healing. Hi, this is Braden Holby. This is Daryl Sutterin. Hi, this is Brian Burke. This is Jordan Tutu. This is Keith Morrison. This is Kelly Rudy. Hi, this is Scott Hartnell.

Hey, everybody. My name is Steele-Fer. This is Tim McAuliffe of Sportsnet, and you're listening to the Sean Newman podcast. Happy Friday, folks. Welcome back to the podcast. I've been putting out a lot of content here over the last month. And as things continue to progress, it doesn't have or it doesn't look like it's going to slow down. at all. You know, we recorded this episode about a week ago. So at the time, I, well, I should give

the little bit of the back story. I met Sue at a, for the kids' sake meeting, and I heard her story, and I was just kind of like, wow, I'd really like to talk about that on the podcast, you know, a bit of her story, which you'll hear in getting, you know, kind of forced or pushed towards getting the Vax from her job. And once again, you're going to hear all about that. And it's funny what a week brings. You know, first it was Jason Kenney, now Scott Moe. And I feel like there will be more of these stories.

Well, they're already going on. We all know it. And more of these stories will be coming out. And there's a lot of people saying, ah, it's just one of every 10 people, maybe that, maybe 10% is getting pushed this hard. And here in town, you know, You're just starting to hear more and more companies are going to be mandating the vaccine,

and that's going to be it. And, well, I guess we'll wait and see what happens here. At the time when I heard Sue's story, I hadn't heard many stories like this. And hence me reaching out, wanting to put her on the podcast so we could talk about it so people could hear it and go, oh, wow, it is actually happening. but I fear now with first Kenny Mo that more of these stories will be coming the light very soon. And it's odd how, I don't know, the universe works because it was supposed to come out a week or two ago and then it just got pushed. So without further ado, here is the T-Bar-1 tale of the tape.

She lives near St. Paul, Alberta with her husband and three children. She's a licensed optician since 2001, worked in law. long-term care from September 2020 to June 2021. She's a mom, wife, and concerned citizen. I'm talking about Sue Stuybel. So buckle up. Here we go. This is Sue Stuybal and welcome to the Sean Newman podcast.

So welcome to the Sean Newman podcast today. I'm sitting with Sue Stuyble and I hope I said that right. You did. Perfect. Now, I brought you on, we got talking when we met in Kids, Scotty a few weeks ago, about a couple different things and your dealings with a school district and kind of a school and just kind of what happened transpired it's still in the courts and I'm not saying it uh resembles what's going on right now but I you know I got a wife who's a

teacher and I hear about the parents just absolutely losing their beans on teachers principles about mass mandates about how this that and everything's being rolled out during COVID and I always like I don't know I come back I'm married to a great woman who has great principles, who wants nothing but the best for the kids, and yelling at her ain't going to change things that are being pushed down from on top. Now, in saying that, I know these don't exactly, it isn't, you know, Apple to Apple, so to speak. But I wanted to kind of hear the story of what transpired in St. Paul and kind of get some background. But maybe before we hop right to there, could you maybe tell the audience a little bit about yourself,

so it kind of gives some context? Sure. So I'm just a regular average Joe like everyone else. I'm a parent first and foremost and I have three kids in the school system. So on on the side job, I'm a licensed optician. I owned my own business. So I kind of have that small town, a small business aspect to it as well. And I also worked in long term care over the past, well, nine months. So I had to leave that position. in June under unfortunate circumstances, but I kind of got entangled in that scenario as well. So again, just an average person with various different experiences through. Do you care if I ask what that situation is? Sure. Are you allowed to talk about it? Yeah, I'm allowed to talk about it.

Well, we can start there if you'd like. Sure, if that's where you want to take it. Well, you just mention it. So, I mean, it's going to sit on my brain now for the next little bit. Yeah, because it is definitely a very heightened situation at this point. So I will say I'm actually a little bit relieved that I'm not sitting in the situation right now because I can't imagine at this particular point in time with what's been announced with, you know, the absolute mandate to vaccinate.

So I actually started my position last September as an office coordinator. I was actually hired as a COVID screener. I thought I would take, you know, just a casual job, seeing that I had decided to shut my business down through COVID. It was just too much. So I took on that position. I ended up jumping into the office coordinating position and I loved it. I have to say that it was not my goal or life aspiration to get into long-term care, but I found out really quick how much I loved it.

I loved working with the residents. and but on the flip side, I learned that it was a very, a very difficult atmosphere to work in. So shortly after I started my position, we went into lockdown, complete lockdown, which meant one or two family members could come in under, you know, with strict rules, masking, shielding, all that stuff. and I would describe the atmosphere as a giant game of Simon says. So Alberta Health Services had, you know, 50 million mandates thrown at you. Some of them made sense. Some of them made absolutely no sense.

So throughout the actual lockdown that I was in, we were only masked. So we weren't forced to shield at that particular point in time. So we weren't vaccinated and we weren't shielded. The vaccine hadn't come out quite yet. With that said, it was. probably some of the most traumatic experiences I've ever lived through. So you're dealing with distressed residents, residents that have dementia, residents that don't even understand what's going on. So some that are trying to, you know, escape out of the doors, some that are, you know,

lost, sad, depressed. So it became a very big, I would say we were like mental health experts it's in there trying to just survive because we were so short-staffed. And what most people need to understand is when they say the word outbreak, it doesn't mean, you know, the whole building has got COVID. It means one. So one person or one staff member has to leave the building. You're on outbreak. So the rules became very, very strict.

We got through that hump, thank God, with, you know, short-staffed, which meant that I was actually on the floor at that point, feeding residents, whatever needed to be done. We pulled together as a team, and we did it. We were also left very exhausted, again, shorthanded, short-handed, short-staffed, scrambling. And we became robots in that building. We became glorified robots. and probably the most disturbing part to that was the criticism that came from the outside.

So we just, we weren't doing it good enough or, you know, oh, it must have been, you know, a staff member who brought COVID in the building or it became a very hostile, I would say, very hostile, very demanding. And when the vaccine rollout did come out, we became, so that facility, although I can't name the facility, the facility. Sure. The facility became a pilot project, and that's what it was called, a pilot project. That sent a major red flag to me.

So that tells me that I'm going to be documented. Everything I do or don't do was documented. And that, in the back of my head, that became a giant red flag. So that happened in the very end of December. So December 20th, to be exact. So we kind of came out of the outbreak. We got the okay that were no longer an outbreak, which really didn't mean a whole lot. The rules didn't change a whole lot.

So family members were still restricted. The doors were locked. There was no, it meant services were also on hold. So the residents weren't getting their pedicures or anything like that. they were very restricted to activities they could do. So it was very boring inside of that building and not a lot to do, lots of confusion. So again, most of our days were spent either consoling or just surviving. We were in total survival mode.

And they still are. My heart goes out to them still to this day. But when the pressure became so intense, when it was announced that we were part of the pilot project, the expectation was we were supposed to be elated that the vaccine rollout was in our building and we were the first ones in Alberta to receive it. I was very cautious at this point because we had just made it through an outbreak and now they're going to be, you know, pushing the vaccine,

although they didn't call it a mandate. At the time, it was called voluntary. So we're like, okay, it's voluntary, so we're not pushed into position. The verbiage is what really bothers me. So on paper, it wasn't mandatory behind the scenes. Anybody who declined, they said refuse, but in my opinion, we've just declined it. You were pulled into offices, private meetings. you were pressured, you were bullied.

I was tremendously bullied on multiple occasions. I saw, because of the position I sat in, several members of the team of the staff ushered in two offices, door shut. And at one point there was a public health on speakerphone waiting for staff members to be ushered into a room to say, hey, we're just, we just want to book your vaccine. And so it really puts people into a really precarious situation. And I don't know who all booked and who didn't, but I can tell you that statistically, at the beginning, we sat at around

60% that chose to get vaccinated and 40% who didn't. By the end of the end of, their campaigning and their pressuring and what I would consider outright bullying, we then moved to 90%. So it worked. I would say it worked. Lots of people perhaps didn't want to take it, didn't feel comfortable taking it, but caved to the pressure. And there were some that have a lot of regrets. I stood my ground. I said no. And I publicly stated no means no. It meant no the first time. It meant no the second time and it doesn't mean no until you convince me to say yes, it means no. And I even brought up the fact that we teach our children, we teach our girls, no means no. Why does it not mean no in this situation? So I did respect the fact that they left me alone after for a bit. I was left alone. I did my

job. I showed up every day. And, you know, no matter how difficult it was, it was still rewarding because I got to spend time with with such precious people like the the the the elderly there's there's some that aren't even elderly in there there's just some really neat souls and there's just I felt like it was a privilege to actually be there to you know get to know humanity on a different level and it just it actually brought me joy despite all the other you know stuff that I had to deal with but then the line became even thinner where unvaccinated people had to keep their shield on and the vaccinated people were able to take their shields off. So now it became like visible who's vaccinated versus who's not vaccinated.

And I said, I'm not comfortable with this. I find this flat out discrimination and I want to discuss it. I'm not denying. I'm not disobeying. I'm not disobeying orders. I want to know why. So as my background is a licensed optician, I dealt with safety eyewear for 20 years.

I know the ins and ounce of safety eyewear. And so they were promoting the shield like safety eyewear. Well, shields, they look like, they're made out of pot bottle material. There's nothing safe about a shield. They're actually a hazard. So my concern with the shields were, for the past,

eight months, we've been masked, we've been shielded, and we're dealing with vulnerable people who are deaf, who have dementia, who need to see our face. They haven't seen our face in a year, basically. They can't hear us, and it really hindered communication. So I'm like, my job as an office coordinator is communication. And I can't even communicate with a resident who I'm shouting at. And so I said, I just, I'm not participating in this anymore. So when you have the answers for me that are logic and make sense, I'll wear the shield. Until then, I'm not wearing it. Nobody needs to know my vaccine status. My coworkers don't need to know my vaccine status. Neither do families entering in. The only thing that should matter is the residents at hand.

What is, what's best for them? And so I was left alone for several weeks after that and, you know, several other workers actually left on stress leave some uh it became it became very clear that that the situation was was going to get much worse and then uh i was i was expecting it actually i shouldn't say i was blindsided i knew it was coming i had a feeling that they wanted to use me as potentially uh you know a token of an example and as an example and I was greeted by the regional director one morning, unexpectedly. And I thought, perfect. She was the person I was guided to ask these questions to.

I thought, okay, that's not at all how it went. I thought we would have a friendly discussion. I was basically shamed. she advertised that she knew that I wasn't vaccinated and that I needed to put my shield on. And I just, I actually asked her how she knew that information because to my knowledge, medical information should have been kept private. And I had known that a mass email had gone out to various members that had no business knowing anything.

Like these were office coordinators and. just, you know, random people that a list of people who were not vaccinated was circulated. And I'm like, this is getting too, this is getting to be too much. And she basically said, you either put the shield on or you get out. And so I made a conscious decision at that point that I would walk out. and so I received a letter following that that I asked her on the spot am I fired and she refused to answer the question I said I'm going to ask you one more time are you firing me and she refused to answer the question I said well by your lack of response I'm assuming that you're wrongfully

terminating me so am I correct in saying that she told me to get out so it I I politely thanked her and I actually even followed up with the letters saying that I'm actually grateful I had the opportunity to work in long-term care because I never would have understood what actually went on and I have a tremendous amount of respect for the healthcare aids that are boots on the ground caring for for your loved ones and it's really tragic what's happening well I was going to pop in at some point because here was the average age of death from COVID in 2020. 83.8.

So 84 years old, 83 years old, over 80. Yep. Well, where do majority of those folks live? Yeah, they live

in long-term care. So you can, I don't mean the pressure on you was correct, anything like that. You can understand the government's trying

to protect people and they're trying to figure out how to do that. Yeah, 100%. I understood both sides of the coin, which is why I questioned what needed to be questioned,

and I stayed as boots on the ground when needed. I understood that if it was for the safety of the resident and the safety of my coworkers, I totally understand. But it no longer became that. It became politicized and it became, well, if you were vaccinated. And they even sent us, so they pressured us to take part of town halls, which I was more than happy to. The more I can understand about what's actually going on.

I think all of us are in that boat, the better off we are. Yeah. So I wasn't, you know, digging my heels in and being, you know, rebellious. I wanted to know the facts. So the facts that were actually presented to us via email, so I have all the emails, and via town hall, which the town hall was actually with Dr. Dina Hinshaw too. So I had that opportunity. And I'll explain that in a moment.

It basically stated that they did not have any information on transmission with unvaccinated. versus vaccinated. So right there that told me, okay, well, a vaccinated person and an unvaccinated person are equally risky. There's no difference. You can both transmit COVID the same way. And what do we know now? You can transmit both. You can transmit both. So that was off the table for me. Okay, well, I'm not putting residents at risk then any more than the vaccinated person. Okay, so that's off the table, right? Okay. Um, that is. shocking to people though because people just can't grasp that no but trying to use it as a as a well you're dangerous well i'm no more dangerous than you are well but but in fairness i i i don't

criticize people like i've criticized myself for a long time with the podcast because i stayed away from this topic and it's very uncomfortable to have people in here and talk right like i don't i don't i keep saying this right like oh you know look around the i'm a hockey guy i want to i don't know what i want to do i want to nice and fluffy stories and have some laughs and a beer or whatever. The thing is, is like, I've been following along and doing as much research and sure have I stumbled on, I say this all the time, right? You go down the rabbit hole of trying to figure out all the research. Are you going to find some bad information?

Yeah. But I hate to break it to you. If all you do is follow mainstream media, they're going to give you some bad information. Oh, wait. If you're vaccinated, you don't transmit. And anyone who says that they said that you would from the start, I don't remember ever hearing that. Do you ever remember here and flip it on CBC or CNN? Oh, if you get the vaccine, you don't transmit.

Like, come on. Like, there's, there's, they may, they may have skirted it and set it in a different way. Yeah. But nobody ever thought in our area specifically, I can't speak for the rest of the world, that if you get the vaccines, you're going to have to worry about transmitting everything, right? Everybody's like, no, I can't even get it again. Well, that isn't either, like, that's, I know, right? Yeah.

I'm not saying anything on the, like, I'm no doctor. I'm just a guy watching and going and like you say, questioning things. I just question and I think that's what got me into hot water is like question. Listen, Sue, questioning things makes people uncomfortable. Just to just go along. Just put good facts. Just come on. Make life easier.

Yep. Right? But the thing is. I heard that all day long for eight months or for the six months, I should say. The thing is, the thing is, I just come back to like, yeah, but like we're talking about this is, this is me. Like, this isn't like wear safety gloves, right? Protect your hands. This is like put something in me that never comes out ever again.

You can't reverse it. You can't. This is irreversible. And what did not make sense to me that I questioned the most is I worked the outbreak. I was around COVID. I didn't treat anybody any different. It's like if so-and-so needed to be fed, I would feed them. I was around COVID with strictly a mask.

That's it. That's all I had on. I was fine. There were a lot of, and I don't again judge, there were a lot of scared workers who, and I have, hey, they just, they couldn't understand why I wasn't scared. And I'm just, I can't explain it. I'm just not. I'm not afraid of it. But in fairness, like the, right now there's people that are scared, right? We got Delta. Oh, yeah. There's a new one, moo, I heard, but whether that's true or not. Here's the thing I'll say about Delta. Because I, I was reading through my notes. You know, you. Um, me and my wife were having a discussion and I've now had on several doctors. Uh, I got informed today that governor from town is going to come on. I'm excited about that because there's a guy at the top of Lloyd who is pro Vax and everything else. I'm really interested to hear something that isn't my narrative, so to speak, right? It's just why I went to the town halls. Right. Because I, I, inform me. Yeah. What am I missing? Like, I'm, I'm interested in all the things.

And I think when we get on our sides and you don't talk to the other side, you become divided. And then that's when real problems can really start. Well, look at what's going on right now. Yeah. That's what's happening. See, I'm kind of ahead of the ball in that aspect because I lived that this, what we're dealing with right now, I lived inside of long-term care because it did become you versus me inside of that building. So it's like, oh, so-and-so was wearing a shield. She's not vaccinated.

Isn't that nice to know? And like it became... You got to have pretty thick skin. You have to have extremely thick skin, which... Well, once again, I go back to... So my wife and I had a discussion, and she's like, you know, if you can have all these conversations, why don't you, like, figure out things that are, like, transferable?

Like, you actually learned this and try and, like, you know... What's the word I'm looking for here? Like, I can't even think... Well, this is what really bothered me and this is my question to to dr dean hinshaw which i was grateful i was able to ask because what bothered me of all the things that bothered me this is what bothered me the most so a resident who's been double vaccinated which we were the pilot project so the residents were double vaccinated at this point in time by the time i spoke to or had was able to ask my question

explain to me why a double vaccinated resident who had to leave for some reason, go to the hospital for whatever reason. When they came back, they were forced to isolate for 14 days by themselves alone in a room. And anybody that entered that room was basically dressed in a hazmat suit. You were gowned out the wazoo. That residents also tested negative for COVID. So before they can even come back to the facility, they have to have a test, a COVID test. PCR test. So not even just rapid test, an actual PCR test. So they test negative. They're double vaccinated. And you're telling me a suffering resident who's basically come back to pass away. That's

the reality of long-term care is alone in a room for 14 days. And anybody that has any contact with him, including staff and family, so you know, you were allowed to bring in a couple family members at a time to, you know, console. How do you console dad or grandpa or mom or whoever in a hazmat suit when they're dying? They don't have COVID. We don't have COVID. And you're telling me that that's humane. Like where have we come in society that that's acceptable?

Like he didn't have COVID and we didn't have COVID. And we can't even console that, you know, the resident that's dying. It just, there wasn't a day that I didn't leave crying. Because that is what pained me the most. I am happy to say that that following Monday, they actually relaxed those rules. So I don't know if I had an effect, but there were other members on that town hall that had concerns like I did, and we voiced them. Now, they did cut out certain aspects of my question.

Like, I was caught very short. It was kind of funny. But regardless, the homes were then able to evaluate whether that resident was higher risk, medium risk or low risk. A high risk would stay in isolation for 14 days. A medium risk was able to like maneuver around with a mask on and low risk they're like free to roam the facility. Which when you bring to the point of they're the most vulnerable people in society to COVID, I would agree. But I would I would challenge the fact that what we did or what we're continuing to do because I can guarantee you they're going to lock down again. I can tell you without doubt that that's coming down

the pipe. And now what's happening is family members aren't even allowed in the facility unless they're double vaccinated, show proof of double vaccination or succumb to a rapid test. That's what we've come to. That has happened. I got the call from a friend yesterday that that that's actually happening. So now we're like restricting, in my honest, humble opinion, we're not, COVID isn't killing our residents at this point in time. We are killing them with lockdowns and mental health. I held, I did not see one death from COVID in our facility, but there were multiple deaths. There were 12 deaths in our facility. They didn't die from COVID. They died from loneliness. They died from other health issues that perhaps were. Corromobities and all that. Yes.

And I just honestly, like, I, if I could give one message to family members on this, aspect, where's your line? You're willing to tell someone that you, you know, to allow someone to dictate when you can and cannot see your, your loved one in a facility based on, on something like transmitting that has never been proven. You're, they're telling you you can't enter the facility because you're unvaccinated. Well, there's no, if your loved one is vaccinated, what, like, it just becomes this topic. So I really hope people fight back and really get involved in that aspect because that's their home, you know, you're paying money for your loved ones home.

That's their home. And it's turned into something that it should never. So there's got to be a different solution. You know, when we, before we started, maybe at the start, I can't remember now. Yeah, you said you have to be loud because if you're not loud, nothing changes. And I think I can speak for myself for certain. And that probably means a good part of the population that just feel uncomfortable being loud. Like, I don't want to be loud.

I just, you know, just let me go in and see, you know, the old folks' homes, you understand, just going back to the average age of death over the last 18 months, pretty much, is that, you know, the older, obviously at risk, right? Mm-hmm. But at the same time, the humane part of it is, you almost wonder, like, why don't they, like, and I can't understand this. So I certainly have no medical background. I want to point that out again, why you can't, like, have them sign a consent for them.

Do you care? Yeah. No. I'd like to see my family. Yep. And let them just see their family. And, you know, that's probably easy for me to say. We're letting people dictate.

let's be very frank, these people that are making these decisions are sitting in offices, unmasked, unaffected. Yeah. They don't understand. Well, they might understand or they're just choosing not to. But this is the most powerful message I got from one of the most dearest men that I will hold close to my heart because he was a resident that hovered around my desk all the time. And he said, you know, Sue, he was super angry and he said,

I lived 85 years for this to be locked up. For what? The inevitable? I'm going to die anyways at some point. And if going to McDonald's and having a coffee with my son brings me joy, I want to be able to do that. I don't want to die locked up in a home. I didn't live 80 years for this.

And it was like probably the most humbling moment for me. I'm like, you're right. Well, you're right. I feel, you know what? And I took a resident out in lockdown. I stood my ground. I got loud and it was his birthday. And nobody would listen to the man.

Oh, you know, they'd shovel him off. And I'm like, and he was almost nonverbal. So he didn't speak a whole lot. And I'm like, oh my gosh, it's your birthday today. What do you want for your birthday? And all he wanted was to see his mother. So I marched into my boss's office and I said, look, I'm taking so-and-so around the block. because apparently his mother lives close by,

and I'm going to wheel him there. I will wear hazmat suit if I have to, whatever it takes, but he needs to see his mother on his birthday, please. And they all looked at me and they're like, you're okay with that? I'm like, yeah, I wheeled him around. We cried together.

His mother was like in total shock. And she's an elderly lady, right? So we're talking about two older people. And it was probably like the highlight of my, life and then we come back and it's like holy crap this is reality for every single resident in this building they just want to live like since when is the litmus test to life just about being having a heartbeat we're just living at this point we're not actually living like full lives so that's kind of where i went the other opposite side of the coin with long-term care yeah it's important that we keep

them safe and but it's it's also important that they have you know fulfillment in their lives it's it's not just about a heartbeat and keeping them alive and that's basically what it's turned into that's all anybody talks about right now we just got to keep them alive well there's ways you know well when it comes to COVID and God you know someday I hope we get to talk about the Emmington oilers again or or or or a little senior hockey or whatever have you but you know when you're When you talk about the stats, either side, pro against, it doesn't matter. When you just, they're just numbers. Yep.

It's really, you know, like, you can make the stats dance and do whatever you want. Yeah. But when you hear stories like that, you go, like fuck, right? Like, but I don't know what the answer is. That's the. Well, I, like you said, bring it back down to the residents. And what do they want? Nobody's asking them what they want.

and that, you know, they, you know, some of them obviously can't advocate on, on their own behalf. They're, you know, dementia. And that is the true reality. And that's probably the most heartbreaking ones is they just, they can't understand. What's really frustrating to me and now, you know, as I hopefully get more people that maybe want to contradict me by all, all stretch of the matter, I'm good with it. I just, you understand that the only way out of this is what they're saying. saying is the vaccine, which is whatever, right? But that's what they're saying. The only way out of it is the vaccine. And yet we know that vaccinated people can get it and transmit and like pass it

it on again. So I go like your only way out still has holes in the armor. And on top of that, you got people that just don't want to take it. Now I go, so you convince me. There's going to be somebody else that you don't convince. And that's going to be the always the way. Always. You're never going to get 100%. No. It's impossible. So we're in. There's people who have legitimate reasons why They can't take it actually. That is a reality. So we're in this weird world of like we have to get everybody. Yeah.

And the only way to get society back on track is if everybody. And I'm trying to figure out like if this is like a two year thing or like a 10 year thing or like a 50 year thing or what this is. Because. Well, I knew that there was booster shots coming before anybody else knew because of the position I sat in as an office coordinator. That booster was already talked about when. they rolled out the vaccine. That was another red flag. I'm like, we're talking boosters and we're just hitting the first shot.

Like that was always a reality. It was always on the table. So like when they start talking about, I'm like, wait a minute. So after the second shots were administered, they were already talking boosters. So that that booster now is now. That's coming within the next couple of months. Yeah, well, they've already announced that it's going to be put to the most. vulnerable beginning. So that'll be the elderly frontline workers. And another

uncomfortable question that nobody's talking about. What do you think, I'm curious, there was doctors march out in Toronto. Actually, I think it was staff, not just doctors, but I've been hearing a lot of buzz lately around a lot of nurses, quitting their jobs, leaving that. I've been told teachers are mandated. There will be teachers that will be teachers that walk away. Oh, it's coming down the pipe. Yep. Well, I think we all know it's coming. Yeah. Have you been hearing lots of that too? Yes. Yep. Um, people have this idea that all healthcare workers are pro-vaccine, pro-COVID vaccine. I can't stand the term anti-vaxxer, because it's just not true. They're, they're allowed to question every single vaccine that they come in

contact with. So like every other vaccine that came down the pipe, do we really know if every single healthcare worker has every single vaccine out there? No, we don't. So stop calling them. And we've never asked that before. And we've never asked that question. But it is coming down the pipe, much like me, I chose to take a stand that no, you're not going to discriminate against me just because, yeah, I love my job and I want my job. And but I really think that we're, we're in, we're in big trouble because there are multiple doctors, multiple nurses that are just. going to say you can have your job. I will find another career. I will make something else work. And what's that going to do? We're already short-staffed in health care. We're already, you know,

scrambling. We're in trouble. In my opinion, we're in, we're in trouble because they'll just walk out. A lot of those doctors, some of them are, you know, reaching their their years where they're almost ready for retirement anyway. So they're just going to say, squirt with us and that walk. I've heard about a Lloydminster doctor who walked out of his practice. Oh my gosh. Like, what are we doing? I've talked to another one in town who, uh, who said if they mandate it, he'll be done. Yeah.

And I'm like, so now we're losing. So since when is the litmus test to a good health care professional, a job? Since when has that ever been? When is it the litmus test to being a good, uh, teacher come at the end of a vaccine? When has it ever become the litmus test to a deserving aspirin? athlete. We talk about hockey. My children are heavy into sports. It's already the talk. You know, it's what I find really precarious about this situation is, and I've heard it, and I've tried to argue against it as soon as you hear it, but both sides, whether you're

waxed or unvaxed, are hoping the other side gets sick. I know. Isn't that so that they can prove that by being unvaccinated, see, you dummies, you should have just got vaccinated. You're like, Yeah, geez, that's a scary thought. But the other side is saying the only way the other side are going to realize this is if a whole bunch of them, I'm like, Jesus, that's a fucking scary. Oh, I think that's just horrible. Yeah, that's like saying. Can we just back off that for a second and just be like, listen, we just need to find a way to bridge the gap here. Like part of this is government fault across the board.

Like I said, Albert Health Services Mandates, that's where we lost everybody too, because their mandates made no sense. And I said to my boss, the only thing left to do is hop on one foot in two to because. zoo because that's the only thing they haven't thrown at us. Like, they don't make sense. One day you're shielded, the next day you're not. One day you're wearing gloves. Oh, never mind. We're running out of supply, so don't worry about it. The millions of dollars that were dumped into useless mandates would blow your socks. We had to bring in extra dumpsters because that's how much garbage we had. Gloves. We went through, I believe, on average, $10,000. And part of that you can kind of understand. At least I think I can understand. At the beginning, maybe, but like you

It was like... Because you're trying to figure it out. Like, I go, listen, I wasn't in the... I assume, I'm just, you know, assuming things, it was never a good idea. But in the beginning, when you're terrified, because I think all of us were terrified, like what if this is the boobonic plague

and 50% of the population out the door done? I don't know, right? Like, that's... Well, the mandates that I'm talking about came long after. Oh, came long after. The only mandate that was mandated at the very beginning was masks. And then, I believe,

came in contact with a COVID, you gowned up and you gloved. But on average, the only person that was gowned out the wazoo is the COVID screener at the front. So I'd wear a gown. Is that public pressure then on the government? Yeah, I think a lot of it is trying to like make sure that we have no government or no outbreaks, no nothing. Yeah, possibly. You know, it's funny. I say this all the time. I feel like in the public, when you're talking to people, you could get a sense of where we were going, and then the government would come out and try and direct that energy their way.

So in the beginning, you could have said jump on one leg is going to heal you, and all of us would have been. I don't understand it, but if that's what they're saying, I'm going to do it because I don't want this. And then a couple months down the road, everyone kind of went, well, this is odd. Like, nothing's really going on. And I, listen, I've talked to enough smart guys

that COVID is killing people. Oh, 100%. I would never deny that COVID. COVID is real. 100%. But it's all about risk benefit, risk factor. Right. That's what it is for me.

I got, what are my odds? And I'll say right now, as we sit here, Sue, in the last two, three weeks, I know more people who've gotten COVID and are actually, whether they're getting tested, not getting tested, whatever they're doing. And they're being hit pretty hard by it, right? Like, I mean, a serious flu. Yeah. I guess is what I'm trying to say. So it's like, it's out there.

I don't mean to downplay any of that. No, me neither. My hat, so I'm going to tell you this part, which will kind of trickle us back into. Sure. The whole school part, but it has to do with my husband who had COVID. So my husband got COVID. My husband is a type one diabetic. So by all, you know, mainstream hysteria, my husband should be dead because he's vulnerable.

He's, he is high risk. And it was so funny because I, I'm so vocal on certain things. He actually, that Alberta Health Services was like harassing him, literally. So he gave them my phone number. He's like, you know what? Talk to my wife because they wanted all of us to isolate because he had COVID. Well, I hadn't had contact with him. And then, so they call me.

I'm like, kids, I'm pulling over. I was in my vehicle, pulled over. Hi. And this is what I said to her. I said, you're telling me. She goes, well, it's just for your safety, ma'am. I said, okay, I can understand that, but I haven't had contact with him. Well, just to be on the safe side, I said,

Okay, let's talk about safety and health. You're telling me that my husband, who is a type 1 diabetic, and anybody who knows anything about diabetes, type 1 diabetics, it's not a funny, it's not a funny disease, and it's deadly. You can die within a day. Like, it's deadly. And you're telling me that my type 1 diabetic husband has never been evaluated by a doctor. So he went to some random testing facility who are not doctors.

I did rapid testing inside a long-term care too as part of that hub. So he's never seen a doctor. He's never seen a nurse. He's never seen one health care professional. You've told him now to go isolate by himself. Do you know what happens to a type one diabetic by himself when he goes into a diabetic? In the shock. Come on.

That is the most unsafe environment for my husband right now is to be isolated by himself. Sick. But he's only allowed to go in to see a doctor or in the hospital. and when he gets so deathly ill that it's possibly past the point of no return. That is nonsense. That's just right there. It made no sense to me. Like, so is this really about health?

Like, if you really cared about health, you'd make sure that, you know, a type one diabetic would contact their doctor immediately, come up with a plan and let's get this man healthy. That's not at all what happened. We were proactive on the, on the outside. And I contacted, you know, his doctor and my doctor and came up with a plan. and okay, get your vitamin Ds, get this, get this. I could not get Ivermectin. Ironically, there was only one doctor that was willing to potentially go that route.

You mean the horse stuff? Yeah. But my doctor was like, you know what, don't panic. Let's just wait and see. And it was a really proactive situation. But no, he did not sit in isolation by himself where I couldn't help him. So from that situation, a week later, I get a call from my children's school. your child has been in contact with a COVID.

I said, really? Who is it? Well, we can't tell you that. Well, how do I know if my child came in contact with COVID? Well, you just have to trust. Well, the teacher's allowed to make the decision whether or not they were a close contact. Why can't my child? So it became this, it's like, you know what?

This is getting ridiculous. And again, I had that conversation with Alberta Health Services. I said, if you can't tell me, and I know what close contact means, it's 15 minutes without any PPE on because of the situation I worked in. I said, you know what? We're not doing this game. We're not isolating. If you can't tell me who I was in contact with or who my children were in contact with, we're not discussing this anymore. Case closed. They left me alone, never heard from them again. So people just need to be, you know, courageous enough or ballsy enough to take a stand. And it's amazing what you can accomplish when you take a stand.

Sometimes we think, oh, well, you lost the end of the stick. So Sue, you got pushed out of long-term care. Well, in the end, I don't view it as, oh, my gosh, I lost out. I viewed it as I had a great experience. I'm able to take that and turn it into something else. And hopefully pass the torch onto someone else to take a stand. And eventually it'll turn. But people have to take a stand.

You know what I mean? Like, well, you said, I might have been like the, the example, but you, those people need to stand up.

You, you, uh, you said it earlier. And I've, um, if I go back to, like this is like last November.

Mm-hmm. Me and my brother got a, a heated argument, uh, and his, we got in this argument of going back and forth, back and forth. He,

I think he's crazy. He thinks I'm crazy. We're just kind of clashing. And finally he says, where's your line? And it was just like, it was the first time I'd ever heard it. Now you hear it all the time.

Actually, I've been saying on the podcast more because I think people really need to think about it. Because it is not an easy question to answer. And everybody is different. And honestly, when he asked it, I was so dumbfound. I looked down and said, that's the best thing you've said this entire time. And he goes, what? I'm like, that rate there is a good point. And I don't have the answer for you.

And I've thought about it now. You know, it's almost been here. And as the temperature goes up and things, you know, can I not agree with most people in saying I thought once we hit the 70% or the 65% that things were going to lose it except they didn't have it were back to summer they didn't say back to life back to whatever

they made sure in the verbiage because I saw tons of people comment why isn't it back to normal right everybody can kind of feel out what's going on listen a big problem people have had and along this entire thing is the kind of the styming of information. Like they really have put a hold. And maybe there's been a reason for that because if we all knew how little they knew, maybe we'd all freak out and go or maybe, I don't know. I can't sit here and act like this is a giant conspiracy.

I don't think it is. I think there's a lot of good people in good places. Yeah, I do. Trying to go like and go like, man, there is not one size that fits all. like this is a shit show and we got problems over here and we got problems over there. How do we put out a blanket thing to make everything kind of smooth? You can't please everybody. You can.

And that's a fact. And that's leadership though. Right? And so right now we sit as the group that are very unhappy and we're just trying to figure things out. Right. And I go like, if I get vaccinated, does this all go away? I keep thinking that. I'm like, so does it all go away?

And then it's like, well. I knew it wasn't going to go away because I knew the booster was around the corner. So for me, it's like, well, if I take one, I got to take the rest of them that come. Right. And the risk benefit for me just wasn't there. So go back to your line thing. I think it's a good point. People need to figure out where their line is because I...

That's in all aspects. That's with COVID. That's with schools. That's with everything you deal with in life. You have to have a line somewhere. And my line, I draw the line when, and it's not even my own. If you think that someone's rights need to be trampled on, I draw the line. I got to give a shout out to Vance Crow.

He's a guy who's been on the podcast a couple times. He lives in the States, and I sent him a message because I'm like, maybe I'm going crazy. Like sometimes I just feel like I'm going absolutely crazy, and I'm not sure if everybody listening is like, you are going crazy. So I sent him a message, and he said, I think all people must now draw a line to know where they won't go. Rights are eroded incrementally, so you have to be flexible enough

to be a part of society, but rigid when it comes to an important point. And I was like, man, that's beautiful. And that's what Vance Crow does, right? He finds a way to just like make it concise, right? Like, that's the problem. And, Ray, I think, I think what needs to happen is more people that have been just kind of like going with the flow. They want to change that.

That's fine. I'm good with that. You want to change that? Yeah, you know, honestly, it doesn't really affect my life. And, you know, they want to. It's funny. You say that. That's exactly with the school situation.

you don't understand until it affects you. Right. And that's what happened to us. Well, let's talk about the school situation. Okay. Sure. So the reason I became so involved in schools, so to speak, so I don't sit as a board of trustee,

but I've researched every school law. And the reason I'm not even attempting a board of trustee at this point is because the new school that my children attend, it's actually a wonderful. We're very fortunate that it's the right fit. So it's not that all school boards across Alberta are these evil people and we just need to upheave everybody. That's not the case. I would hop in and say I would agree 100%.

I think they're all great people. It only takes one to really mess thing up. For the most part, they're all really good people. And I think a lot of them think they have the public's best or school kids best. interest at hearts. It only takes a couple to really mess things up. And any board I've been on, it's quite evident. But carry on. Yeah. So, um, I would say that, well, almost four years ago, I was that naive parent that just went with the flow. Ah, you send your kid to school and, well, you know, I'm sure they're fine. I'm sure they're safe. You know, whatever. I didn't even know what a

board of trustee was three and a half years ago. I just, I was so, um, I was too comfortable as the word I would use. I was way too comfortable and that is the problem is we're way too comfortable and now we're not willing to get uncomfortable and all of a sudden it ended up being a missing principal. We're talking about an extremely tiny school. So K to 12 it was 175 students, preschool to 12 actually, 175 students. I volunteered all the time at the school. I was involved in that aspect but not involved whatsoever with behind the scenes, policy making, all that kind of of stuff. When we realized it was a really serious situation, we didn't focus necessarily on the fact that our principal was missing or absent, or they used the word absent. We focused on the fact that

we uncovered that four kids were taken off school property in names of a social justice issue. This is where people could not let their brains go there. It's impossible that kids were taken off school property that just doesn't happen. It's illegal. It's not allowed. Well, it did happen. As you read, it's in legal documents that it happened. There's no debate that it happened.

Yeah, well, they got taken off of school property under the, I don't know, is the right word of... Under the guise of Bill 24, which no longer exists, by the way, but in efforts to have, you know, to talk about safe spaces. And again, this is a super uncomfortable topic. Oh, 100%. And it's super sensitive. What was the group there trying to form?

So the, and this is where it gets very tricky. The group had a gay straight alliance. It was painted in the media that they were trying to, and it was stimied, and it became this big, you know, political realm. So very interesting enough, this came out right during an election time, ironically. We're kind of sitting in that same boat. So it became very evident that it was a serious topic, and it was more to do with a social justice issue. But we as parents did not cling to the crutch of a social justice issue because at the end of the stick, it was irrelevant what it was for.

Under no circumstance should kids get taken on school property, no ifs, aunts or buts. Without parental knowledge or consent. So we, at the end of the stick, it had, it had nothing to do with, that, that was just kind of the, the bubble of it. But the actual problem was communication, was policies that were being passed and trust board of trustees that sat silent. That's where, and it's like, holy man. So we mobilized as parents very, very quickly. I would say within a day. Well, it was within a day.

So I had formed a Facebook page instantly. And I invited everybody I knew and said, hey, if you go to this school, we need to mobilize. We need to, because we had no idea what had gone on, to be very honest with you. It was just chaos. And we knew something major had gone on because our children were living very traumatic situation inside of the school. So the teachers were actually told to zip it, stay silent. They were not allowed to answer any questions from parents. You are just to say, we're not talking about this.

And so it became like this tug of war in the school where our children were like, we know something happened and you're lying to us. And it became like a battle between teachers and students. And like you said, parents and teachers battling it out. And it stuck that the teachers in the middle of the, of the, of the, battle. One thing we were able to do is, um, uh, I would say like join arm, arm and arm with teachers, which went to our benefit because we, we didn't pit anybody as the enemy at that point. We're all in this together. We just need to figure this out. And, um, that's why I'm just such

an advocate of get on your parent councils, get on your, uh, trustees. So we, we discovered really quickly. Yeah, the way to, I'm just trying to attach it to what's going on right now, right? Because a day, roughly a day before. Now, once again, I'm not advocating, I guess, for or against mass, but I'm advocating for why would we go yell at the people that are teaching our kids? Yeah. You need to find a way to bridge that gap and focus the energy on what can actually make changes. Well, what I would hope the teachers would do in that situation, is actually document what the concerns are and bring it forward. Hey, these parents have these concerns.

Don't take it personal. Like, that's the number one thing is they can't take it personal. It's not personal. They're just angry parents and it happens. Unfortunately, it happens. I've been there. You know, I've been that angry parent and I've been that, okay, you know, I'm really sorry. Hey, let's just, let's figure this out.

So teachers need to document and bring it forward. Their first line is their principals. So get that to your principles and make sure that it gets into their union and into, like this, it has to be a collaboration at this point. So if you want to, we can't be angry that these policies are there and we're mad because we didn't read the policies. If we were proactive in reading policies, which I learned the hard way that it's so important to read policies, because hidden in the policies that nobody paid attention to was Bill 24.

Nobody paid attention to Bill 24, which has now turned into Bill 10. So again, the mask mandates, the pandemic policy, it's hidden in your school board. It's there. How many people have gone to their Board of Trustee meetings? I can tell you because I attend my board of trustee meetings as much as I can. There's maybe one or two parents. It's really low. So it doesn't only take sitting on the board of trustees.

It takes showing up, reading your policies, challenging policies that you don't agree with. So we're sitting in a really, I would say, positive time because there is an election coming up. So yes, make sure you know who you're voting for. It's not just because I'm friends with Billy that I'm, Billy's going to be the trustee. What does Billy really believe? So for an example, you said you and your brother, you know, don't necessarily agree with the same thing with the people you're voting into a trustee position.

You might love them as a human and think they're the greatest, you know, but they might not necessarily align with you want to see inside of that school. So elect wisely. Well, and be informed of when your elections are coming. informed of when your elections are coming up, which they're right around the corner. For certain school districts, they're right around the corner, correct? I believe. And I would say on top of that, they do meet, yes? And I believe that those are open to the public.

Yes. So I would say if you're really concerned and you really want to make, you know, a point of what's going on you're not okay with, that's the place to do it. Absolutely. I don't think, and I, you know, I can't sit here and say that I've seen it. I've heard different stories coming from different places around the area about parents showing up to school on the first day of school and letting them have it. I would strong consider not doing that. I mean, you got kids and everything watching, right? I would strongly not advise that either.

But if phone calls, emails, but like when those council meetings are happening, right? Get to the council meeting. Get in there and get on the parent council meetings too. People totally undervalue parent council as well. So you have a direct line to the minister of education. on parent council. Get on it. It's, it's, we've become very complacent and very like, oh, you know, I'm too busy or I'm too this or, ah, you know, I got, you know, I can't make the meeting tonight because, you know, I was, I'm painting. There's, there's no excuse anymore.

There's no excuse. You, it's so important. If you value education and like I said, I fell down the education rabbit hole. Um, so just to backpedal a little. little bit we we were able to mobilize as parents it didn't mean that we all agreed that's that's the misconception that most people think is we we all agreed we didn't all agree but we held meetings we discussed okay we and and this is what we did we came up with a common a common goal and we weren't going to challenge necessarily what was happening you know behind the scenes legally that was completely out of our control but what we could

tackle was our board of trustees. At some point, it kind of, it divided us in the aspects that some people just said, we're, we're jumping out, we're switching school boards and they laughed. So we lost like 35 families, I believe. And at first we took it as a, as an insult. Oh my gosh. Like, we're losing the battle. But it actually, what would really turn the tides for me was when my own child became a target. And within that same school board, my child was secretly recorded by her phys ed teacher that occurred two years ago. That was game over for me. That was my line. Okay, whoa, I can't keep my child in... What was your line? When my child was abused by a teacher. That was my line. In hindsight, I wish it wouldn't have

been my line. But I learned a valuable lesson. So with throughout all the the the cofuffle and the what it did do was it mobilized parents. It caused parents to have really important conversations with their kids, which is also important in this whole mask mandate situation. Get those conversations with your kids. So my kids already knew that four kids were taken off school property. Holy crap. You need to call me if something happens. What did my daughter do? When that situation happened, she called. me immediately. Immediately. It was like she actually had, she was 11 at the time.

She had the courage to go up to the teacher and say, are you recording me? Are you secretly recording me? And he fumbled the phone and made a couple of excuses. And she stood her ground and she says, you stop that right now. And what is my mom going to do when I tell her? And he walked away from her. She ended up, this is what really made me sick about the situation. There was two of them.

There's another little girl involved. And the two of them came up with a plan like, okay, like if he comes near me again, we have math class with this man again. If he comes near me, we'll kick him in the shins and we'll, you know, punch him in the face. And they came up with defense mechanisms to fight off a teacher, some of who they were supposed to trust. That was my line. So I pulled all three of my children out at that point. It was game over.

I'm not doing this. And I learned a really valuable lesson there that, what are you fighting for? What is your purpose? Well, I want my children to go to a safe and healthy school. That was not a safe and healthy school at this point in time. The trustees showed me that. They showed me that when four kids were taken off school property and nobody was reprimanded in that, by the way. Nobody got fired. Nobody, they all still remain there. The hello, that should have been a light bulb a long time ago that there was a line. And my, what we were truly fighting, for is it was a francophone school so it meant people put their blood, sweat, and tears in building

that school. And it meant so much to me. And it was a wonderful school. And we thought we were on top of the world in that school. We were on top of the world. Until they showed us that it wasn't. Until they picked on somebody that they shouldn't have. They tried to create a situation inside of our school that never should have happened. And it became political. that that should have been my line it wasn't my line sadly but once it became my line and I pulled my kid out we eventually were shown what our board of trustees cared about so in that situation hopefully those board of trustees get voted out at this point this is where it's so important to elect I built a relationship in a different school district and we uncovered that okay holy

crap, not all school boards are evil and poisonous, or have, you know, specific agendas or whatever the case may be. There are really good people out there. And I'm happy to say that my kids went to school with no mask. Our district decided no mask. But we as parents, there were many of us that wrote letters prior. We were proactive. Get proactive.

We don't want to send our kids to school with masks. We're not going to enroll our children if they have masks on. we were very, very proactive in that aspect. So we didn't all walk off that school situation together, but the commonality was we did have impact. And you as a parent have so much power. You just don't know it. So get involved.

Get on your, if you can't, you know, being a trustee is not your in the right line at this moment. Then get on your parent councils and get, to your meetings. Get informed. Information is key. You need to be informed. And so as I fell down the rabbit hole, I can spew off Bill 24. I can spew off Bill 10. I can spew off the Education Act. But I think the message is if you're really concerned about what's happening,

the way to go about it isn't to go yell at the teachers. Absolutely not. It's to get involved. The teacher has no control in that situation. If there's been a resounding thing, I've heard from different people, whether it's professors, lawyers, doctors, et cetera, concerned citizens like yourself. It's been, we've got to get involved. You're not involved. You've got no choice in what they bring down. And you can't expect someone to represent you.

That's right. So as far as the teachers go, don't expect your union to represent you because I can tell you right now, down the rabbit hole I went with my daughter. They don't. they have one collective message and they're going to go with that collective message. So it's up to teachers to get involved in their union as well, not just expect them to represent you, but are you, because they have nominations within their own union, right? They have a president, vice president, council, all of that within their own unions, get involved. What are they actually, because I don't even know how many teachers know what's on the table. for them, but the Alberta Teachers Association is heavily pushing to mandate masks in schools.

That's right in their resolutions. You can go on their website and research all that. It's in there. And also hidden in that document is mandating vaccines. That's in the document. So that's how come I know that what's happening with our nurses and doctors right now with Alberta Health Services, that's coming. That's coming to the teachers. It's eventually going to trickle into almost every aspect if we don't get educated. I apologize if I feel like I'm distant. I'm getting my phone is blowing up right now because Alberta's announcing their new restrictions and everything that's coming on. They're having a press conference and I'm trying to listen and pay attention to that and that is a terrible terrible normally I don't put my phone on. This is actually

that's happening right now. Yes. So normally what I do is I take this phone and I put it over there so the world can can shake and I don't even think about it right and then you find out later that oh god there was a whole whatever because that way it's one-on-one but uh it's okay I know it was coming and so I put it in my pocket I'm like well maybe I'll open it up and they'll be like get news like things are going to be status quo for a week it doesn't the amount it's rippling off my lag right now that is not the case so what's happening I don't know and so I would love to sit here and chat more but I can already feel my brain going different places. I really do appreciate you coming in. And before I let you go, I wanted to bring up

one of the things I've heard, and I can't remember who said it from the beginning, but a very smart person once told me that schools are no different than any business. And your child being at school in the district is money that allows them to get federal funding and everything else. And I'm paraphrical. Your child is over $10,000 to a district. So it's a business. It's a business. at the end of the state. So I'm not saying pull your child because, but once again, if you're that concerned, understand there is money that is associated to that. And on top of that, I would say don't do, like if you really want to make an impact,

don't do distance learning in the same school district because they still get to claim that, right? Bingo. Exactly. You got it. You can hit them with the dollar sign by taking your kid out 100%. I'm just saying, I'm pointing out if you really want to play the game because at times this is a giant game. And it is a serious game. I'm not making, I'm not making light of the scenarios. But I hear

about all the parents yelling and everything else. I go like, A, you got to focus. I think that's what you've brought up very clearly. You have to focus where you're going with that. And then you've got to get involved, right? When push comes to shove, what is your goal? That's right. What is your goal? Screaming at the teacher is not your goal. Because if you're not going to follow through with pulling your kid out, then don't even go down that avenue. Well, and I've heard that, right? They come scream and and then they give the kid and it's like, oh, well, whatever. we didn't wait. So for me, with my daughter, my goal was a safe environment. My option was put her back in the classroom with the man who videotaped her or get her out. I got out. Yeah, that's easy.

If that meant, it wasn't an easy decision in all aspects because it was very traumatic. And it meant that I might have to homeschool. And it meant that my life had to change. Listen, when I don't have to get there at this point. I don't have the school. I don't have the school, listen, I bring this up a lot and I find it very hard to talk about the schools because I'm married to my wife and she's a fabulous teacher, fabulous. And the school she's at is fabulous.

Like, they're a great staff out there and like, but I bring it back in my brain day homes, right? Like where you say your children. That is probably in my lifetime so far with young kids the hardest thing I've had to do because you're entrusting somebody with someone who can't

talk and tell you what's going on. Exactly. Kind of like long-term care. Same situation. Fair. Yeah. And it took me seeing firsthand my boy, and I don't know how any time, I don't know if I've ever told this story aloud, except to close friends, but it took seeing him and him, geez, I'm making this out to be way worse than what it maybe is.

But like he was. Distressed? Distressed. Had bite marks from other children. Oh my goodness. He wasn't napping. Couldn't give him to nap. And I just said, buddy, you okay?

And he's bald. And he was like, I can't remember. if it's two or three. No. And it was like, boom, that day, it kind of gives me, it's a very, I don't talk about it much. But in fairness, the places we got them into after that, you talk about great people. Man, we've had some of the best day homes. Maryland and Jim Donald right now are just fantastic human beings. And Sarah Remple, wherever you are, was the lady that took us in afterwards. And Sarah Remple, let me tell you, is an angel on this earth. She was fantastic and I know her husband listens to the podcast so what they did for my family was unbelievable

and I feel like as parents we make out situations to be like well what are we get that's what are we going to do what are we but if you're that concerned you have to get involved and I think if there's anything that comes out of this last part about the school what's going on in schools or what not's going on in schools right whatever your concern is if you're that concerned you have to understand you got to get involved you can't a simple yelling at something teachers too because teachers, they need teacher leads on parent councils. So those really awesome teachers, get on your parent councils and link arms with your parents. We want to support you.

That's the thing. And that's what that whole school situation we kind of slowly dabbled into. At the end of that, that was because we were so upset that they were trying to get rid of our principal that we loved who made our school what it was. And we were pissed off parents. Don't you dare do that to us. And we taught them, well, 75 kids left that school. We taught them exactly what we thought about that. You don't do that.

Well, and you do 75 kids times the dollar amount. $750,000 at the end of the stick. So teachers, there's an avenue for you too. You're not alone. Parents are there to support you. The crazy ones that are screaming at you, it's not personal. Let it roll off. But you guys can get involved.

We as parents can get involved. And we can make change. I've seen it. and I'm not getting on the board of trustees because my trustee is fantastic. She's phenomenal. I'm not pulling my kids out of my kids at school because it's fantastic in there. I honestly cannot rave enough about the high school my kids go to. My son plays hockey in Spruce Grove, which is two and a half hours away from my home.

I drive him four days a week because he wants to be in that high school. He doesn't want to bill it. He wants to be in that high school. So that just screams volumes that that they're, There are good people. There's really good teachers out there. There's good trustees. Link hands and hands with those people and make the change.

Create the change you want to make. You know, like you be the change. Well, I appreciate you coming in soon and driving in to do it. Thank you. Yeah. No, I enjoyed it. Thank you. Hey, folks.

Thanks for joining us today. If you just stumbled on the show, please click subscribe. Then scroll to the bottom and rate and leave a review. I promise it helps. Remember, every Monday and Wednesday, day, we will have a new guest sitting down to share their story. The Sean Newman podcast is available for free on Apple, Spotify, YouTube, and wherever else you get your podcast fix. Until next time.