To refuse school transport on safeguarding grounds

[Pistachiopikachu]

My child's taxi driver has recently told him he thinks its ok to use racial slurs.

He's made various derogatory comments about woman drivers.

Aplauded the use of the England flags being hung and painted.

When its just my child on the route he will sometimes take a longer route home. This is apparently to avoid traffic, that hasn't shown up when I've checked the route myself when I check to see where he is as I am never notified if they are running late.

This driver swears when having to deal with situations with the children and at other drivers.

My child gets school transport to specialist SEN school.
This is provided by a taxi firm contracted by the council. He attends the closest school that is able to meet his need.
There are two children on the route and no assistant as it has been deemed they do not need one.

AIBU to refuse to allow my child to travel and tell the council they need to provide an alternative?

Sure
tell them
if they agree there’ll be a delay, in the meantime your child won’t be going to school

are you 100% sure your child hasn’t misinterpreted / told outright porkies ?

Have you made a complaint with the council? That's awful, I don't know why anyone would think it's ok to speak like that.
I haven't dealt with this personally but I think you're well within your rights to request another driver and refuse the other.

Aplauded the use of the England flags being hung and painted.

I would never do it. But what’s the big deal?

Report all of your concerns to the school transport team.

Those would be some very detailed and coherent lies to come from a disabled child. Not absolutely impossible but extremely unlikely, even from a non disabled child to be honest.

My child's driver has been changed due to inappropriate language against another child in the taxi. There was no break in service, another driver turned up the next day.

(Im not sure applauding flags is a valid issue though)

It would be very detailed and coherent comments to come from a child in any context.

Of course. I’ve complained before, but maybe AIBU isn’t the best place for this, try the SEN boards for some great advice.

Absolutely no way! What a nightmare...your poor kid! I wouldn't let my child back in his car ever again. The racial slurs, swearing and the rest are atrocious and the taxi firm shouldn't have someone so unsuitable doing the job and ruining their reputation, but the fact that he takes an unplanned and longer route when alone with your child is terrifying. I'd tell the school, see if there are any other complaints, call the taxi firm and the council and just refuse to go anywhere near him. He's not safe to work with children and young people!

You’d be unreasonable to refuse to travel.

perfectly reasonable to ask for a different driver though.

Yes, exactly, hence why I said "even from a non disabled child". The possibility a child made up coherent and detailed lies consistently to portray a narrative of someone with regressive ideas is very low. And why would they do it?

I don't think the OP asking her child if he is lying would be reasonable in this scenario, not only because it's a safeguarding issue but also because the chances he's lying must be practically zilch. OP knows her child is not lying.

My point is - the driver has either said this directly to the op or… the op is putting her own flourishes on what her child has said

I'd like to think that would be a really weird thing for someone to do, make up an embellished story about a racist, sexist taxi driver who creepily likes to spend extra time driving around her disabled son.

Lots of children can repeat verbatim things adults have said.

New to mumsnet?

The flags caused a lot of confusion for my child after discussions at school on the topic, I chose to ignore this when it was mentioned as a solo event.
Its more added to the more recent comments that it concerns me as it seems progressive.
I also ignored the initial situation with the woman drivers comments as i felt my child could have misinterpreted a joke.

He's not telling fibs, it would be very unusual for my child to do so with his set of needs/abilities.
He likes the driver and after being of the understanding racial slurs were inappropriate he was checking what was right rather than a telling me ehat happened situation.

If you refuse school transport would that release them from their obligation to provide it?

I would recommend speaking to the transport department on your local authority’s website. You should be able to find a link for the SEND transport team, who are responsible for home to school transport (taxis etc). Only has to do it once for my child in 7 years, but it was very quickly dealt with.

To refuse current school transport provision and expect an alternative

How old is your child?

What would you do in the meantime?

Its racism dont to intimidate minorities / immigrants etc

When you go to other countries and see their flags… do you feel like this?

can you not empower your child to ask him to stop ? Ask taxi company for another driver

Giggling at the thought of my dd, whos main interests are sweeties and sandcastles, giving me political updates 😫😫😫

Don't be ignorant the only connotation at the moment us racial hatred

the people putting these up are not royal fans
or year round football fans

please do not close your eyes snd be daft