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Two young children who were booted out of a BC daycare after their parents had a falling out with staff, have received $2,500 in compensation after taking the daycare to the BC Human Rights Tribunal.

The students, who were likely four years old and one year old at the time, argued they were discriminated against because of who their parents were, which was contrary to the province's human rights law.

According to an April 4 BC Human Rights Tribunal decision, the two children attended a BC daycare in late 2019 when the issue arose. Neither the children, their parents nor the daycare are named in the decision.

The decision said the issue arose when the son was kept home from daycare for a few days because he was sick.

The mom was away at the time, and the dad took the older daughter to daycare each day and left his sick son with his grandparents.

The son had a lack of appetite, mild fever and red dots on his skin.

When the mother returned from her trip the dad told her about their son's symptoms.

Fearing it could be hand, foot and mouth disease she emailed the daycare.

"Just so you know, (my son) was sick all last week with symptoms matching that of Hand Foot Mouth disease," the email read. "I was away last week on a business trip otherwise I would have told you sooner."

The daycare emailed back saying that a contagious illness was a serious matter and that parents had a responsibility to tell them.

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While the mother thought she was doing her due diligence she felt the daycare's response was "fairly accusatory" as if they'd intentionally downplayed her son’s symptoms.

More emails followed with a back-and-forth between the parents and the daycare as a conflict developed.

Ultimately, the daycare emailed the parents to say it couldn't meet their "personal standard" and that their children would be withdrawn with two weeks' notice.

"I find your decision to withdraw both my children very shocking," the father emailed the daycare and suggested an in-person meeting.

However, he never heard back and sometime later, on his children's behalf, took the daycare to the BC Human Rights Tribunal.

He alleged the daycare discriminated against his son based on disability because he had hand, foot and mouth disease, and against both his children because of who their parents were.

The Tribunal dismissed the disability argument saying that having hand, foot and mouth disease wasn't a disability.

However, the Tribunal took issue with the daycare's evidence regarding the expulsion of the children.

"Testimony about the reasons why the students were removed was confusing and contradictory," the Tribunal ruled.

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"I find the Daycare has not established that the Parents failed to cooperate to the point that withdrawing the Students was 'necessary for the safety and overall well-being of educators or other children in care,'" the Tribunal ruled. "There is no evidence before me indicating that the Daycare considered whether it could work with the parents to avoid withdrawing the students. Nor is there any evidence before me to support a conclusion that trying to resolve the dispute before deciding to withdraw the students was not feasible."

Ultimately, the Tribunal ruled the daycare had discriminated against the children.

The father argued the daycare should pay $10,000 to each child in compensation.

However, the Tribunal ruled the daycare pay $2,000 to the daughter as compensation for injury to her dignity, feelings and self-respect and $500 to the son, as he was too young to understand what had happened.

The Tribunal also ordered the daycare to pay $2,000 to the father for wages lost to attend the hearing.

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