Parliamentarians in the Canadian province of Ontario are considering a private member's bill which which will force school boards to have standardised asthma management plans following the death a student in October.
The 12-year-old student, Ryan Gibbons, died of a severe asthma attack during recess after no one could get to his inhaler which was locked in the school principal's office. The school's policy was to keep inhalers under lock and key and the student had previously had some of his inhalers confiscated.
“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,” the student's mother Sandra Gibbons told the Globe and Mail.
“There’s supposed to be one in the office and that’s the only one he can have. I didn’t understand why.”
Ms Gibbons has urged the three main parties in the Ontario legislature to pass a private member’s bill from Progressive Conservative Jeff Yurek.
"The bill will allow students with asthma to have a puffer in their pocket or backpack and force every school board to develop a comprehensive asthma policy," said Mr Yurek.
“Hopefully we can take an important step toward ensuring a tragedy like this never happens again.”