In the city of Barrie, 50 miles north of Toronto, Simcoe County District School Board contacted the Children’s Aide Society to investigate an allegation of sexual abuse against the 11-year-old student last week. What could possibly prompt such a drastic measure, you ask? Why, the word of a psychic, of course.

Victoria’s Educational Assistant recently visited a psychic. She was told that a student of hers, whose name begins with “V”, was being sexually abused by a man between 23 and 26 years old. Mrs. Deluc was called into the school urgently, notified about the information, and handed a list of behaviors her daughter was exhibiting that coincided with victims of abuse.

The only problem is Victoria is severely autistic and nonverbal, and those behaviors are common with the disorder. And never mind the fact that she doesn’t have any contact with males of that age range.

Oops.

The school board claims they were merely “following protocol” and “in all cases this (information) must be reported”. CAS found no evidence of abuse and dropped the investigation, yet Mrs. Deluc is still infuriated. She demands an apology and is considering legal action against the school system.

So a family can be investigated for abuse on the whim of a psychic, yet it takes extreme measures for someone to be diagnosed with a mental disease? That sounds fair to me…