problems after restraint

Dionsmum, I sympathise with you and your sons situation and my heart goes out to you.

I have a son with epilepsy and autism. He has found school a difficult place and two years ago, we made the heartbreaking decision to place him in a "special school" and swapped education for support. The new school was brand new and state of the art It seemed amazing with every conceiveable facility. He was 11 years old and small for his age, had severe communication and language problems and so many anxieties that made his life extremely difficult. That said, he is one of the most caring and loving well behaved children you could ever imagine- a real sweetheart.

We met with the school on numerous occassions and told them what soothed him and what didnt. We feel that we really went out of our way to give them as much information as possible. We were specific about no shouting or any kind of harsh treatment and we were assured that they knew what they were doing.

My son was there 6 weeks with a "supply teacher" without incident and was then moved into the "enhanced support area" which we were told gave him even more support as the staff were specially trained to care for children with communication difficulties and autism. These classes have no more than 6 kids with a class teacher and two special needs auxilliaries- on paper it's a dream come true!

On the very first day there were problems, and to cut a long story short (er) my small 11 year old was held face down on the floor by FOUR teachers where they said he "urinated out of protest". His upper arms were severely bruised and he was inconsolable when he got him home. The deputy head said my son had "an outburst" after crashing into some chairs in a gym hall on a bike (that he should never have been on as he didnt have the muscle tone in his legs to ride the darn thing anyway)

On the second day, a similar "outburst" happened but they claim they did not have him in any kind of "hold"

On the third day, after I called them to see how his day was going, I was informed that there had been "more of the same" but I was not to worry they could "handle it"

That afternoon, my son came home, with an ashen waxy complexion and his lips were blue. He had urinated (again) and begged me not to send him back. As i ran him a bath, I took off his school shirt and was horrified to see the state of his little body. He was covered in bruises and his chest was purple! He basically collapsed in my arms.

He was hospitalised and the doctors said he had internal bleeding consistent with having been held with force on a hard surface (ie face down on the floor as the school had admitted that day- again!) He had 63 bruises in total.

The school claim they acted properly and used "CALM" they claim my child was agressive and violent (we had never seen this previously) They claimed that they acted this way to prevent injury to themselves and others.

Despite the DOCTORS reporting the matter to Police and Child Protection, NOTHING was done about it. No disciplinary action against the four teachers resposnible was ever taken and as our Deputy Head was on the Child Protection panel, nothing was done about it either.

The police said there was "no intent" so again did nothing about it.

We had no idea the school used restraint, we were not told about this and it was only after the incidents that they demanded we signed a "Physical intervention consent form". We refused so they excluded our son from school for ten days until we did sign it!

They demanded we attend school every two weeks for "a chat" which we did for over a year but it was a waste of time because they twisted everything we said and kept inaccurate "minutes" so I stopped going.

Almost TWO YEARS later, my now 13 year old still has nightmares about it and hates school, but although they moved him class, he still sees those responsible every day- we have no option as there is no alternative schooling for him. It breaks my heart!

I cannot tell you how many organisations I have spoken to about this, and they are all very sympathetic but no one seems to have any powers or advocacy to offer us. I feel as if no one cares. After all, it's an autistic child, he is disabled- he has no voice- he doesnt matter.

Our only option is to take legal action ourselves, but its a long slow proccess. So far the council have ignored the lawyers letters and it does seem as if we have no choice but to take the matter to court.

I cannot believe that there are laws against child abuse in this country yet in our case, it doesnt matter- we are nothing. If I had done this to my child I would be thrown in Jail, but because it was TEACHERS it seems as if it's ok. WHY? It feels wrong on so many levels.

How did you get on with your case? I would be interested to hear from you.

Dionsmum, I sympathise with you and your sons situation and my heart goes out to you.

I have a son with epilepsy and autism. He has found school a difficult place and two years ago, we made the heartbreaking decision to place him in a "special school" and swapped education for support. The new school was brand new and state of the art It seemed amazing with every conceiveable facility. He was 11 years old and small for his age, had severe communication and language problems and so many anxieties that made his life extremely difficult. That said, he is one of the most caring and loving well behaved children you could ever imagine- a real sweetheart.

We met with the school on numerous occassions and told them what soothed him and what didnt. We feel that we really went out of our way to give them as much information as possible. We were specific about no shouting or any kind of harsh treatment and we were assured that they knew what they were doing.

My son was there 6 weeks with a "supply teacher" without incident and was then moved into the "enhanced support area" which we were told gave him even more support as the staff were specially trained to care for children with communication difficulties and autism. These classes have no more than 6 kids with a class teacher and two special needs auxilliaries- on paper it's a dream come true!

On the very first day there were problems, and to cut a long story short (er) my small 11 year old was held face down on the floor by FOUR teachers where they said he "urinated out of protest". His upper arms were severely bruised and he was inconsolable when he got him home. The deputy head said my son had "an outburst" after crashing into some chairs in a gym hall on a bike (that he should never have been on as he didnt have the muscle tone in his legs to ride the darn thing anyway)

On the second day, a similar "outburst" happened but they claim they did not have him in any kind of "hold"

On the third day, after I called them to see how his day was going, I was informed that there had been "more of the same" but I was not to worry they could "handle it"

That afternoon, my son came home, with an ashen waxy complexion and his lips were blue. He had urinated (again) and begged me not to send him back. As i ran him a bath, I took off his school shirt and was horrified to see the state of his little body. He was covered in bruises and his chest was purple! He basically collapsed in my arms.

He was hospitalised and the doctors said he had internal bleeding consistent with having been held with force on a hard surface (ie face down on the floor as the school had admitted that day- again!) He had 63 bruises in total.

The school claim they acted properly and used "CALM" they claim my child was agressive and violent (we had never seen this previously) They claimed that they acted this way to prevent injury to themselves and others.

Despite the DOCTORS reporting the matter to Police and Child Protection, NOTHING was done about it. No disciplinary action against the four teachers resposnible was ever taken and as our Deputy Head was on the Child Protection panel, nothing was done about it either.

The police said there was "no intent" so again did nothing about it.

We had no idea the school used restraint, we were not told about this and it was only after the incidents that they demanded we signed a "Physical intervention consent form". We refused so they excluded our son from school for ten days until we did sign it!

They demanded we attend school every two weeks for "a chat" which we did for over a year but it was a waste of time because they twisted everything we said and kept inaccurate "minutes" so I stopped going.

Almost TWO YEARS later, my now 13 year old still has nightmares about it and hates school, but although they moved him class, he still sees those responsible every day- we have no option as there is no alternative schooling for him. It breaks my heart!

I cannot tell you how many organisations I have spoken to about this, and they are all very sympathetic but no one seems to have any powers or advocacy to offer us. I feel as if no one cares. After all, it's an autistic child, he is disabled- he has no voice- he doesnt matter.

Our only option is to take legal action ourselves, but its a long slow proccess. So far the council have ignored the lawyers letters and it does seem as if we have no choice but to take the matter to court.

I cannot believe that there are laws against child abuse in this country yet in our case, it doesnt matter- we are nothing. If I had done this to my child I would be thrown in Jail, but because it was TEACHERS it seems as if it's ok. WHY? It feels wrong on so many levels.

How did you get on with your case? I would be interested to hear from you.