To ask for my child to be put in a different taxi

I’m shocked there’s no escort for them, my son has always had one and there’s a reason for that- everyone’s safety. All of these children need to be supervised.

Your poor son, you’re well within your rights to demand this is sorted. Are you on half term next week? Because that gives transport time to deal with this. No way would my child be going anywhere near that taxi with those children.

I used to do this kind of work and in really depended on the county. Some would pay for a chaperone, but just as many did not and stuffed the taxi so full that every seat wat taken by a child with SEN. These kids often did not get along and would fight. I once pulled over on the freeway, because things got so bad and I had no chaperone to supervise the kids. I did not dare drive on with them fighting like that.

The parents would get mad at me, but there is only so much you can do as the driver and you often don't notice things going on in the taxi till it is way too late. I hated driving school children for this reason. You are left with an impossible task and left to deal with the fall out from kids shouting and crying and the parents being angry that their children arrive home late and upset.

I'll never do this work again.

It's a taxi. You should request for him to sit in the front with the driver. There is a limit to what these kids can do to him in a car or small mini van with an adult present.

A separate taxi is money the country and probably your borough/county council simply cannot afford at the moment. He has a specialist school place. He was free door to door transport to school. If you don't like the other kids in the taxi then you'll have to take him there yourself. It's an unfortunate fact of life that some kids are horrible to other kids. Every single day, schoolchildren have to run the gauntlet of horrible bullying little shits on the bus or on the walk home from school and nobody steps in to protect them and provide an expensive bespoke solution.

Totally agree with having an adult with them in the taxi.

40+ years ago I was in your son’s position, one of the other kids I traveled with was Indian and it was the taxi driver who encouraged racist behaviour towards the poor boy.
All these years later I remember him spraying air freshener on the lad in the back seat.
I was a very young child and I was terrified of both the driver and the other kids, I wish I had reported it to the police. I hated getting in that taxi.

I’m repeating what others have said, but the police definitely need to be involved.

I don’t think the response of LA to your complaint is enough, though as you say, you were expecting to be ignored. It’s just kicking the can down the road and the driver still can’t intervene and your son is going to suffer again so they can have ‘evidence’. It needs putting a stop to, and NOW. Not over half term, not in the weeks following half-term, but NOW.

NC for this as I’ve told the story IRL.

I was the subject of bullying by other SEN kids as the youngest, and the taxi driver was a grumpy old git who took it out on us as well, so bullying from him as well. Totally unchaperoned. We were always late for school as there were so many kids to pick up and the last child meant the taxi had to go into town and out again to the school.

There was an incident every day - always worse en route home when everyone was tired and fractious, and in my case there was a simple solution, which I know doesn’t apply to you, but it did to me. (The reason I am telling you is because of the impacts on me, among them being daily nosebleeds with the stress of always being late and enduring all this.)

You see, back then it was the LA way or the highway. My own mother was not allowed to take me to school.

She had the car, and the time, BUT SHE WAS NOT ALLOWED.

We were called into a meeting with the head, SEN teacher, rep of LA and they told me basically I was a silly naughty little girl who was making a naughty fuss. So they bullied me too.

I answered them with a killer line: ‘But if my mummy takes me to school then I’ll get to school on time. Don’t you want me to get to school on time? And everyone else can get to school on time too?’

They had nothing to say to that.

I was all of 8 and this shows I went through more bullying by adults to resolve this bullying by children with the vile taxi driver in the mix.

If you ask me what the seminal event of my childhood was, it was this. The iron entered my soul that day. I’ve stood up for myself ever since, which is a good thing with my disability, but I shouldn’t have had to go through it. I’ve had lifelong physical effects too - the nosebleeds are still a feature of my life, it’s just been weakened by all the bleeds (repeat cauterisations have failed).

It was 50 years ago.

Don’t let that happen to your child. With threats of sexual violence it could escalate to actual sexual abuse while they’re gathering the evidence from the camera. The taxi driver will be culpable if it happens in their taxi so you need to push back and push back extremely hard. Police involvement will cut the Gordian knot of the multi-agency involvement here, and force the school, LA and taxi company, who are all failing you, to address the issue.

I would keep on with the taxi firm as well as the school and council. One of my DC was being bullied on the school bus. There was a chaperone but she was too busy reading her phone and texting to do more than occasionally yell 'Shut up'. The driver was partially deaf and didn't realize what was going on. I reported it to the school and the bus company. The bus company replied that if I could give the names of the children involved their parents would be warned and the children banned from the bus if it continued.

It stopped.

Parents relying on provided transport don't like to have to suddenly start driving their children to school.

Phone the SEN school and council and put in a formal safeguarding complaint. Tell them in writing exactly what has happened then phone the police so it's documented that your child is at risk of harm.

I am actually shocked the taxi driver is still willing to take these kids. My son gets a taxi to school with 5 other kids (large taxi). It's only the taxi driver and the kids are all quiet and well behaved in the taxi. I doubt the taxi driver would want to do it if they were not. These kids are all in the ASN hub of the school and have varying degrees of needs.

This.
This behaviour has to be stopped now and hopefully a police visit will do that.

Also I would say if you have a social worker get in touch with them for support. If you don't contact the social care duty line. Yes also I would say talk to the driver - it must be very stressful for them. Maybe they can sort something out with the taxi company in terms of a different vehicle with different seating. They shoudl also talk directly to Transport. Really the disruptive ones should be the ones moved from the taxi rather than your son.

Like all special needs issues it really is a case of mobilising forces in as many directions as possible.

School transport with us (not SEN) is a ban for any poor behaviour. Understandably the driver can’t intervene because they are driving but they can certainly report the behaviour-has the driver also been consulted? Hugely dangerous having disruptive kids in the back of a car

It's also possible they already have other transport doing routes in the area that could take your son.

I have had problems with the taxi for my son in the past (more to do with random drivers turning up and dropping him off alone in the wrong place) but transport immediately agreed to sort something out. However it took them a while to as they had to put out to tender for a different taxi firm. In the meantime I was able to take him and they then compensated me for that. As you can't take him, they should pay you to make your own arrangements until they sort it out. Perhaps you can find a local firm with a driver who you can trust and he can get to know a little? You could always go with him in the taxi for the first journey taking him late into school after you've dropped your other child off.

You can get taxis with more than 5 seats.

This is horrible. Report to his school, this is bullying and also report to whoever is responsible for transport.

I don't know if this is standard but on my PGCE I spent a week in a SEN school, all the teachers had the right insurance so that they could take a child home if necessary.

If it the same at DS's school then while things are being sorted a teacher may be able to collect him.

Contact school and the transport team.

Moving forward, if this can't be resolved, then I think you may have to think about other more local schools. In the end, sadly your son's safety and well being will being will be more important than his support for SEN and education, which all schools will offer even if they're not the best for his needs.

i wouldn't get wound up by ignorant responses like that. Some people are idiots and have no idea what we are dealing with. hope you all get it sorted!

It's something if they can monitor what's going on in the taxi but I still think there should be an escort - they can use a people carrier / mini-van if they need more seats.

Don’t let him get back in the taxi, report to the police and the headteacher and safeguarding at the school. Can you keep him at home? He was in very dangerous situations - strangulation???? And this will likely escalate. Sorry this has happened to your son.

How old are the children who attacked him? I would involve the police. They’ve abused him and they need to be punished for that.

If these are older children who are on the same school, I suggest you have a bigger problem than the transport.

I would have major problems with the school itself

Then lucky you! Tell me exactly where the money is supposed to magically appear from??
My DS taxis cost between £60-£70 a day ( depending on traffic). Thankfully DSA pays 2/3 of it.
Some of us are full time carers for our disabled kids and are lucky if we have £23 left in our accounts at end of month.
Where do think we should get the £1200 a month from?

I’ve had a similar issue recently (except when we calmly and politely asked the taxi driver not to seat our child next to another child who had previously assaulted them, he took half a day to decide that we’d shouted and sworn at him and dragged a child out of the taxi so our contract was suspended while the council established that this was an utter lie investigated). I got in touch with everyone I could think of including my MP and my child is now in a different taxi with three of their classmates. I’d go in hard with the LA - in my experience they’re excellent at ignoring parents otherwise.
I’m really surprised there’s no escort though, since this is as much for the safety of the driver as it is for the passengers.

Of course YANBU!
Id like to know who the 2% are that voted that you are!
If that was me I’d be lodging a formal complaint for those kids to be dealt with, keeping him off school, or arranging my own taxi.
Any of the above is acceptable under the circumstances

school should be made aware of what is happening in the taxi, also passenger transport contacted and arrange a meeting if possible between you all, this must not be allowed to continue and if they can’t provide your son with alternative transport they need to provide a chaperone, also contact your sons social worker who may be able to apply pressure on the local authority.

I would seriously enforce your concerns about his safety while in the taxi and tell them what has been going on but a bare minimum I would expect a chaperone in the taxi.

Please talk to the school. The LA response is not good enough. This is a safeguarding issue. Keep pushing, and try and get this referred beyond the transport team if you can.