School conducted a LFT on my son, against my consent

[duckme]

We received an email from our school to say that, due to the increase in covid cases, they are going to resume the LFT scheme in school (secondary) rather than at home. They sent an online consent form for parents to complete. I declined consent. I marked the form as such and sent it back electronically. My son was actually isolating until today as his bubble had burst, but I reminded him that he didn't have consent for the tests so he wasn't to have one. I know mistakes can happen and forms can be misplaced so I wanted to make sure he was fully aware of my consent.
He came home today and informed me that he had the test.
He said the whole class was called the the hall. The lady could see on the list that he hasn't got consent and asked him about it. He repeated what I had told him, 'my mom said, I'm not to have one'. The lady then proceeded to lecture him about protecting his family and friends. He is 13 and gave in to the person of authority in front of him. Despite them having explicit instructions to the contrary.
AIBU in being absolutely livid? That person ignored written consent, ignored the verbal consent of my son and then guilted him into having an invasive test.
I'll be contacting the school tomorrow to complain but I'd like to know if my covid fatigue is making me over react a little. But I can't imagine it being ok for a school to override parental consent in this way pre covid! Have we all surrendered all our our rights now? Even our parental ones?

The poor, poor child. Imagine having a parent like this. I hope he turns out OK and runs like hell as soon as he can.

Namechangedforsomething that is utterly vile. I seriously hope you don’t have kids. You are clearly a bully.

I don't agree with the OP's position on testing, but she has a valid point about how the school have handled it.

This is the government guidelines on consent:
Informed consent to testing
Testing is voluntary, but those who are eligible for tests are strongly encouraged to participate to reduce the risk of transmission within education settings.

The person giving the consent (parent or legal guardian or the young person) needs to have a sound understanding of the risks and benefits of testing. The setting is responsible for communicating the purpose of the testing.

Even if the child or young person or the parent or legal guardian has given consent, if the individual at any point is not willing to participate in testing then that choice should be respected.

Young people aged 16 or over do not need parental or legal guardian consent provided that they are able to make the decision for themselves. However, the setting will need to decide whether the young person can reasonably provide informed consent themselves and may exceptionally need to consider undertaking a mental capacity assessment (MCA). Young people themselves should be given the opportunity to express their views and preferences to the extent that they are able. Settings should keep a record of how the decision on consent was made. There is further guidance on the Mental Capacity Act 2005 and deprivation of liberty safeguards (DoLS) during the COVID-19 pandemic.

You are generally unreasonable, but YANBU to object to their doing something without your consent when you specifically withheld such consent.

[quote WhenISnappedAndFarted]@Blindstupid yes and the OP's son obviously consented.[/quote]
The issue is that he might've been coerced into consenting. Which is wrong. There's no debate about that.

I'm not familiar with the LFT as they're not used where I live. Is the swab the same as the regular covid test one, ie up the nose until you hit resistance and then swizzle it for 10/20 secs (can't remember which)? Because that's really painful and my DS would never agree to having it again. First, and only, time led to complete meltdown.

@bridgetreilly

Honestly, I would give the school a break. You're right, they shouldn't have overridden your consent or persuaded your son to agree.

But you know what? Every single person who works in a school is at the end of their tether right now. Every one of them is exhausted and stressed and still constantly having to respond to ever-changing circumstances and expectations. And like the rest of us, they are seeing case numbers rising, schools having to send students into self-isolation, and fearing the effects of the new variants.

So sure, maybe she was more direct in her response to your son than she should have been, maybe she did persuade him to have a test he didn't want, but it's not invasive, there's no possibility of any harm, and she was doing her best.

Take a deep breath, write an email to the school, save it and decide tomorrow whether you really think there's anything to be gained by sending it, or whether you might as well just leave it this time.

As a teacher myself, I would normally agree , but on this occasion, I am still maintaining that the school ignores OP's parental wishes. So many of you cannot separate the pandemic from parental control here - as a teacher, I would not tolerate any of my colleagues riding roughshod over a parents wishes. Just think about it for a second without your covid blinkers on.

@duckme he’s “Gillick competent” though so it’s up to him to say yes or no the the rest. Your consent has no legal bearing and if he agreed the onus is on him to decide. If he says he felt pressured you need to work on his ability to say no about his own body and autonomy.

The school shouldn't have asked your consent and then ignored it. Doesn't matter what it relates to, they either need your consent or they don't. If they had just gone ahead and allowed the kids to consent for themselves and dealt with any parental issues afterwards that would still be an issue but to ask consent and then ignore it is putting themselves in a very precarious legal position.

You don’t have a proper reason, so YABU. You say your son is only interested in LFts to get out of class for a few minutes, but it isn’t about whether he is “interested”, it’s about protecting the whole class. You are being wholly unreasonable.

@ObviousNameChage he could have been coerced by his Mum, he could have been coerced by teachers, school mates or whoever.

From everything the OP has said the son wasn't bothered and would have done it to get a few minutes out of the classroom.

I think some people on this thread are slightly missing the point, no one should be doing anything to or with our children without our consent. I do not agree that a 13 year old is old enough to give consent to anything, particularly something that their parent has said no to.

@LH1987

I think some people on this thread are slightly missing the point, no one should be doing anything to or with our children without our consent. I do not agree that a 13 year old is old enough to give consent to anything, particularly something that their parent has said no to.

That's your opinion, but the Law says the opposite. The school has to follow the law.

In relation to this, I don't care whether there is a pandemic on or not. It makes absolutely bugger all difference to the question on whether a teenager is entitled to make decisions about their own bodies.

Provided the teen is competent for the decision in question, then it is 100% their choice, no question about it.

For a minimally invasive procedure/test with very low chance of adverse or life changing effects, the competency test will be very basic and easy to pass. A very short conversation between the school nurse and the teen will be ample to demonstrate the level of understanding required.

For e.g. cancer treatment with many complex options, the competency test will be much more complex. Multiple healthcare professionals are likely to be involved, and a lot of time will be spent with the patient ensuring they understand the implications of each option and have the level of understanding required.

In both cases, it is a matter of fact that a competent teen is legally entitled to make their own decisions. The parent may provide advice, guidance etc., but they do not own their kids.

ineed … wheni …. The son has said he felt pressured. Coerced as others are saying …. That’s not ok. That doesn’t make it acceptable. School should have protected themselves, contacted OP and let them know the situation BEFORE the test, and let the OP decide what to do. Consent was not given. That’s it.

This is about something simple and harmless …. but where is the line drawn about breaking consent? What is ok to break? A woman says no, is that ok to ignore? A person says no I can’t eat that, I’m allergic, is that ok to break? School consent says no don’t give my child paracetamol on a school trip, is that ok to break? No, none of these are ok to break, So why is this consent ok to break?

Whether or not the child consented, and under what conditions, it goes against the guidance for in school testing, which is clear that you should have the consent of an appropriate person as well as the willing participation of the child, if under 16.

YANBU to be pissed off that school overrode your consent after asking for it. YABU to not insist that your son does LFTs for the benefit of others around him. Look up Oliver Johnson on Twitter, he’s been calculating the accuracy of LFTs using Scottish Islands - where there are rarely positive results - as his test group, and it turns out they are really pretty accurate. At least make sure you have your facts right before you object to them.

How invasive is the test?
It's no more than a good nose pick or a scrape of the back of the throat to remove a baked bean skin that's just got stuck.

Why won't you allow it?

Oh dear... no wonder the virus is on the rise...

@LH1987

I think some people on this thread are slightly missing the point, no one should be doing anything to or with our children without our consent. I do not agree that a 13 year old is old enough to give consent to anything, particularly something that their parent has said no to.

You might not agree but he’s still allowed to make his own medical decisions at that age. That’s the law. Morals don’t change it.

But surely some sort of "test" would be required, by a medical professional, to determine Gillick competency? Not just someone saying to a 13 year old "don't you care about your friends or family enough to do the test?" This whole thread has blown my mind.

Some people are missing the point because the OP posted it as a pre-Covid/post-Covid dilemma. It isn't.
Parental consent and Gillick competency are the issues not whether OP's DS should get a LFT or not.

How are parents who don't agree with a cotton swab up their child's nose going to cope if the vaccine is offered to young teens and the teen is deemed competent to consent.

TheTeenageYears
All the information I've seen for schools says that under 16s require parental consent, 16 and over can consent as long as they're capable, and should a child 16 and over not be capable of informed consent then parents or carers can on their behalf.

Quite a lot of posters on this thread are attacking the OP because they don't agree with her opinion on testing, rather than the details of her justifiable concern about the school ignoring her consent form.

@LolaSmiles

I don't agree with the OP's position on testing, but she has a valid point about how the school have handled it.

This is the government guidelines on consent:
Informed consent to testing
Testing is voluntary, but those who are eligible for tests are strongly encouraged to participate to reduce the risk of transmission within education settings.

The person giving the consent (parent or legal guardian or the young person) needs to have a sound understanding of the risks and benefits of testing. The setting is responsible for communicating the purpose of the testing.

Even if the child or young person or the parent or legal guardian has given consent, if the individual at any point is not willing to participate in testing then that choice should be respected.

Young people aged 16 or over do not need parental or legal guardian consent provided that they are able to make the decision for themselves. However, the setting will need to decide whether the young person can reasonably provide informed consent themselves and may exceptionally need to consider undertaking a mental capacity assessment (MCA). Young people themselves should be given the opportunity to express their views and preferences to the extent that they are able. Settings should keep a record of how the decision on consent was made. There is further guidance on the Mental Capacity Act 2005 and deprivation of liberty safeguards (DoLS) during the COVID-19 pandemic.

How does this contradict anything that the school did?

This guidance is saying that parental consent should not over-ride the child refusing consent. The reverse doesn't apply.

And the MCA does not apply to people under-16. By convention, when laws talk about 'young people' they usually mean 16-18 year olds

It is wrong but I think in the scheme of things you need to let it go

@ChloeCrocodile

The tests of competency are clearly laid out and are that an individual must be able to understand the consequences of a decision and be able to communicate his/her decision. Competency for a swab will be a much lower threshold to reach than - say - a kidney transplant.

Teachers and support staff are not sufficiently trained to assess whether a child meets Gillick competency or not! Unless it was a properly trained HCP who decided he was allowed to override his parent’s refusal then it shouldn’t have happened.

Children are not the property of their parents and should be able to make medical decisions when they are competent to do so. But schools should have fuck all to do with it. Teachers do not always know best.

Agreed. Am a secondary school teacher.