to think people should be a bit more sensitive when discussing things in public in front of people they don't know?

[FioFio]

I have just stood behind a couple of women in Tesco I don't know why I go there, it's convenient berating the fact that children with special needs get free transport to school and how bloody dare they blah blah blah and why on earth aren't their parents means tested

I mean what the actual fuck

If a child does not have walking/mobility problems or if their SEN does not affect them walking to school safely then cannot get free transport unless they live more than 2 miles from school if you're under 8 or 3 miles from school if you're over 8. So not all children with SEN get free transport to school.

I wonder why you felt so personally affronted by a person with a disability being given transport to be able to attend school.

I think it's sad that you feel this is an unreasonable use of resources.

opinions are like arseholes, everyone has one

Well, quite, Nappy. Maybe all children who get free transport should be means-tested (stirs).

Actually, scrap that, the government might be listening.

What has the title question to do with your post?

Are you criticising their opinion or the fact that they were voicing it in front of you?

No, but I do think some common sense should be used. In our local housing estate 5 or 6 taxis pick up 5 or 6 children to go to the local sen school a mile or so away, often in mini buses / 7 seaters. I appreciate that some may not be able to share due to behavioural differculites / medicial problems, but surely where able they should be sharing? In the cases when a parent/s is at home, has a lovely galaxy (car of choice round here, brought by tax payers) sitting in the driveway, is in the receipt of carers allowance yet still uses the taxi services, I think that it is wrong and systems should be in place to stop this happening. I also have little sympathy for parents who get taxis to pick up there child / ren from home when it's about 40 miles away when there nearest sen school is 10 miles away but they prefer the one 40 miles away as its a newer building, arguably with better facilities, yet there's nothing 'wrong' with the one nearer to there home.

Fio, I think some people believe we deliberately have these children with extra needs just to annoy them and cadge free stuff.

I think bigwheel was the person in the queue in front of you OP

Hey ho. Big wheel, have you, personally, had to assess a special school or unit for whether it fits the NEEDS (not random preferences) of one of your children?

The local authority will generally do anything to argue that a child would be better off in the cheaper option, so for a child to head 40 miles in the morning, the school has been agreed to be the best placement for that child.

And re sharing: our LEA agrees with you. Agrees to the extent that on an exam morning, they thought it would be a fab idea to send his taxi to pick up a child who'd just been excluded from another school for violence, and thus make my shy, nervous, disabled child late for a GCSE.

I don't have a Galaxy btw. I do have a perfectly good car though, and I'm at home all day, as I'm self-employed. Sometimes, if he's ill at school, I ask the taxi to ferry him home rather than doing the 36-mile round trip. Judge away.

They were being downright rude because

a They were talking very loudly in a public place where everybody knows eachother

b Having an opinion/expressing your idea of what's right or wrong is one thing - slagging off a disabled child can never be OK, anywhere

c What they were saying was a million miles wide of the mark what is actually the case, so it's bullshit, rumour spreading, meanness

Private, quiet conversations are different. I guess it's just whether or not you give a shit if anyone's offended by you. I do.

Oh, and before you ask, Bigmouthwheel, we took him to the next exam ourselves to avoid a repeat performance.

I didn't think you could get the taxi to pick them up for illness? Last time DS' school phoned me cos he was ill I couldn't get in touch with anybody to give me a lift and didn't have enough money for a taxi there and back. I could have got the bus but by the time I would have got there it would have been home time anyway so I had to ring the secretary and say he'd have to stay and come back at normal time on the taxi. Felt terrible :(

At DS' school there are 5 or 6 children in each taxi, sometimes more if it's a minibus. Children only go on their own if they are especially withdrawn or agressive.

sheisthecats Because she didn't need a taxi. And the state doesn't have money to waste on taxis taking secondary school students to school when they are able to take public transport. Why is that hard to understand?! I am a doctor. I see people with all sorts of disabilities make their way to hospital appointments under their own steam. If they are struggling I'm the first to try to get help with transport for them. I'm not unkind or unfair. I just don't think that anyone should get a very expensive taxi journey (as I said - daily for 7 years) when they don't need it. Baffled by your response tbh.

Where are these taxpayers bringing galaxies from?

OP YANBU.

Well apologies - I didnt see the bit in the OP where it was said they were talking very loudly . Nor did I see the bit where they were slagging off a disabled child - I thought they were just expresing an opinion on whether children with special needs should get free transport or not. And what they were saying, whilst it may be way off the mark for you, they are still entitled to their own opinion, no matter how warped it may appear.

Maybe you're not meant to, nappy? I don't know; but there's no bus to the school, and having asked once if they could do it when I had no means of getting there, I've done it again since when it would merely have been very inconvenient .

Agree that the taxi should probably be shared, but we're a long way off the route for any of the others usually, had no warning of this change, and as I say, this was quite an aggressive child. Not the calmest start for an exam morning, frankly.

Take away the taxi service completely.

Pay the same amount of tax regardless.

It's just people having a moan, most likely about stuff they don't understand.

Taxpayers money? Cock off. Might as well be used for something useful hey?

oh, that's a worry Worra.... ha ha worryworra

Worrying worra the worry wart

Betty I was responding to your comment at 1352, which I presume was aimed at me, as some of the wording from my post was highlighted.

This was waaay before anyone mentioned transport/taxis for SN kids. Also, it wasn't the OP that said talking loudly, that was me. The conversation I was forced to hear, along with a third of the playground, was nothing to do with transport, it was much more personal to my nephew and so unbelievably wide of the mark. That's all.

I recognise the OP.
Fio is a well-regarded MNer.

Fio isn't a journalist. Fio is a longstanding mner in particular on the sn board.

Fio yabu
Always better to know who the wankers are.

hawkmoor - you're a doctor? A medical one? I am stunned.