www.theguardian.com/society/2019/jul/06/he-was-covered-in-bruises-the-vulnerable-children-being-harmed-in-special-schools
Anyone in journalism or works at the Guardian? You can only respond to the article via the Letters page.
Some of the names have been changed.
Is the lack of comments section to protect the parents and children from disablist comments or is it to protect the newspaper from libel if some posters were to name and shame schools both mainstream/special when sharing their own experiences?
Or is there another reason they sometimes don't have a comment section?
Simon Hattenstone is an excellent journalist. The Guardian moderators usually do a reasonable job.
I found the article utterly terrifying. As a mum, as a teacher, as a parent of a child who is atypical and who I will be seeking an EHCP for on my return to the UK. I know there's been SEN cuts, I know there are fantastic teachers and assistants out there, I've worked with them, so this isn't a teacher-bashing thread. Or a Special Schools bashing thread (back in the day I did some supply and went to four different ones all with amazing staff with unlimited patience).
But I just looked at the Taylor Report (2011) and the idea that incidents aren't fed back to parents for fear of having negative impact
is the clearest way of losing parents' trust or faith in you. Safeguarding always requires logging of incidents and the fact that some of these children were vulnerable wrt expressing what was happening to them is an abuse of power.
If you are a mainstream/special school teacher what is your policy for children having a meltdown or bolting - is there a safe space, do you let them go, do you ring the parent straight away, how do you/have you restrained them?
I taught for 13 years and can only think of restraining a child once and that was holding them back from a fight for a few seconds. The other time I broke up a fight on playground duty I got between them iirc (very stupid I know, I was young and a bit sturdier than I am now). I thought current policy was you don't go near a child to console them let alone hold them down. I am well aware that a teenager throwing gravel is not ideal but if that child has been restrained multiple times when touch is a trigger parents should have been called earlier. As for threatening to hang themselves, why the hell did parents find that out on a Freedom of Information request?
I'm at a loss tbh - everything I read tells me that Special School placements are the holy grail yet this article sounds like restraint is a widespread practice and some schools sound like stories you read about care home abuse of the elderly. The link between both being vulnerable and not having a voice.
If you have experience of PDA yourself or ASD and have positive outcomes and praise of schools your children are at I'd love to hear them. Alternatively if you ended up with concerns were you ever threatened about non-attendance - Dundee council are mentioned - I was under the impression that home schooling was also legal in Scotland? Are the rules/criteria for home ed/demands higher for atypical kids even when off rolled because their needs are not being met/reasonable adjustments cannot be made? The first child it seems was forced to attend afternoons for 2 1/2 years as being in his best interests - Who would have decided that if he had been terrified of the school where he'd been hurt? This is only 6 years ago.
Also how had he been able to return to mainstream having been in Special, anyone know (clearly the right decision but am surprised LA didn't try and block the transfer).