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

[Odearr]

My 11 year old ds goes to a sen school, mainly the needs of the children are semh -he had autism and adhd.
he loves school. Feels safe, everything there is good.
however, my son has been out in a taxi with 3 other children from the same school who are older than him (they are year 9) and this past week he has been threatened with being strangled, put in a headlock, had his phone taken and they kept calling me telling me "I'm f**king your son" "we're beating you're son up"
and today came home with a pumpkin he'd carved at school smashed up and the other child had thrown it at him, put his phone inside it, put pumpkin bits all in his hair and over his clothes.

No way is he getting in that taxi tomorrow, and I have emailed the council transport team and tried to contact the school but waiting on a call back.

AIBU do insist that this transport isn't appropriate or safe and they he's given alternative transport ? I know the la are going to be hard to convince because it will cost
more money, but he can hardly be expected to be subjected to this every day

Different kids have different needs ,my son has always had a chaperone.

That's great for your DS.

The OP's DS, on the other hand, has been the victim of theft and physical and sexual assault by older boys. Not exactly childish squabbling

I hope that most of us would agree that protecting children against these things is not an "unnecessary cost".

Well as you said it waseñt thst much ,but it may have escaped your notice but most people, particularly parents of children with disabilities dint just have a spare £1200/month to spend on transport
I'm not sure why you keep commenting, who don you think your farcical ideas are helping ?

@Odearr
Just offering a bit of solidarity. We had a similar problem - it was resolved after I made complaints, the child was moved to different transport and an adult chaperone was reinstated. I hope this is sorted out for you.

I would rather there was enough local provision for sen children and that he could attend a school that we could feasibly get to by walking or public transport actually.
funnily enough most people aren't expected to pay £300 a week for their dc to go to secondary school so bit weird that you think parents of disabled children should have to

Can you ask his parents to complain too?

Yeah come on OP, you must have £300 a week going spare, doesn't everyone?

Twats Jokes aside, this is absolutely unacceptable and you need to take it as far as you can.

Jesus fucking christ on a bike.

Tell me you don't have a child at a special school without telling me you don't have a child at a special school!

Most special schools are not within walking/public transport distance. Many parents on low incomes don't have a car. Funnily enough, absolutely zero parent carers are in it for the freebies

Poor kid. Definitely do not let him get that taxi again. Report the other boys

my DC had a private taxi firm take them to school, when there were problems, not fighting but the taxi driver was high, the council were extremely helpful and sorted it straight away. replacement taxi company was great, reminded DS to take his cricket gear for example

The cheapest solution would surely be for the taxi firm to use a larger vehicle so that it can carry an escort as well. Plenty of taxi firms have seven seaters or ds2's special school used a minibus which means the pupils can sit separately. As it is this is a major safe-guarding risk not least because the likelihood of the driver having a crash because of all the angst in the back is high. When the latter was pointed out to our LA they did provide separate vehicles for ds2 and his schoolmate who as the school said were just as incompatible as you could get. Admittedly this was a while ago and finances were slightly better. There is a reason these children are at a special school and you cannot naively expect them to not have these needs or not be supported whilst they are being transported to school.

So.e posters have no idea do they ?
My sons special school isn't that far about 5 miles, but I don't drive so if I had to take him it would be an akward bus journey there and back with a 14 year old with complex needs who doesn't do waiting patiently or has any idea about road safety
Or a taxi which would be at least £30/day .

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.

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.

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

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.

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?

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

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.

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.

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.

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!

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.

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.

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.