Repetitive physical abuse in the classroom in Y3 - is there no way out of this danger?

[DarthVader]

There is an autistic child in my dd's class. He attacks and injures other children regularly in class despite having 1 to 1 supervision. The classroom is unsafe - with an attack that causes serious and permanent injury waiting to happen. There is no suitable alternative provision for this child and his mother wants him to remain at the school.

Meantime he is endangering all the other kids. I am considering removing my child. I am all in favour of inclusive education for special needs children but not when they endanger the physical safety of my child. Where do I go with this, I am beside myself with the situation.

I have no criticism of the school, the child or the mother but the situation is untenable.

A child can have a TA all day but if the school/teacher are either not aware of how to cater for the child, or can't be bothered, then the child will become stressed and can express their frustrations in this way. Was the child like this last year? Could it be the change of class or key stage that has triggered this?

sarah573, thanks for your post and I am very pleased to hear that your son is now doing so well and that the provision for him is good at his school.

A reduced timetable seems not to be an option in this case and I believe it is because the mother is not agreeable. I am trying to write a letter to the governors but it is hard to know what to say.

Attacking 20 classmates is worse than anything else to date. I am unsure why this child is seemingly more stressed now than ever. I think one of his frustrations is if other children refuse to play with him and perhaps this is happening more - or perhaps it is changing classrooms and teachers, I really do not know.

I am a bit surprised that the head has discussed this in with such detail with you - that she would move him to another school and that the mother doesn't want the timetable. It sounds to me like there may not be a good relationship between the parent and the school. The head obviously has a negative view of the child.

Well, not obviously but perhaps.

Hi cornsilk, I only know that the mother of this boy is v keen that he remain in class with all the other children on a normal timetable and also that he attends after school club. I have not discussed the limited timetable option with the head but am just guessing really that this would not be in line with the mother's wishes. The boy has only just got a statement after all these years because although the school wanted one the mother did not want her child to be labelled. Obviously I have sympathy with the child's mother who I know to be unhappy with the current situation. I don't know whether getting a statement earlier might have been helpful or not.

I presume the child has gone through the school from reception (maybe even nursery.) Has this always been the situation?

yes, he has always attacked others on a regular basis leading eventually to 1 to 1 TA time at the end of Y2. However attacking 20 children is worse than his previous behaviour.

I guess it is easier to accept that there can be problems when a child is new to school and also relatively young - and you hope they will grow out of attacking other kids. Instead this boy is now almost 8 and he is strong and getting stronger and it is more and more obvious that it is something which can potentially get worse and not better.

Not got a school age child so can't really advise, but it's terribly sad that (assuming school are using all appropriate behaviour stategies) the system makes it so difficult to find appropriate schooling placements for children who aren't well served by inclusion. Very sad that another child referred to in this thread seems to have got a specialist placement due to rafts of complaining letters about him.

there are no winners in my current situation

DV, The Special Needs and Disability Act 2001 (SENDA) states a right for all children with SEN, whose parents request it, to be educated in a mainstream environment, unless the LEA considers this to be "..imcompatible with the provision of efficient education for other children."

You need to bring the fact that you are aware of the wording of this document to the attention of the Head, (I'd get a copy of it from the net and print it out!) and if you get no joy from this, phone the Additional Education Needs dept. of the LEA yourself and explain the situation to them.

I totally sympathise with your situation, and this, as a parent of a Y3 SN child in mainstream who does spiteful things to his classmates with little provocation. The thread title gave me a shiver because I can imagine parents of DS's classmates feeling this way but when I have mentioned my concerns to the SENCO she assures me it is not a problem. (DS is not autistic so he is not the child in question.)

Don't leave this. Your child has as much right to educated in an environment free of violence as SN children have the right to inclusion opportunities. Action needs to be taken.

Hi, I'm really sorry that you are having this experience and understand your concerns. Linked to LEAs are outreach support services - eg Autism Outreach, with such a crisis situation I would be expecting at least fortnightly specific visits. School needs to be requesting this. Does the child have their own space, a workstation and a chill out zone with known distraction and comforters? Does the child have visual timetable, countdown system and the many other stratergies in place that can help the child feel safe.

If this child has 1-1, attacking 20 classmates should never been allowed to happen. There are set procedures in place for incidents when any (not just SEN) child are threatening violence. Im sorry but assuming I have read this right and it was 1 incident then I would be questioning the staff handling of the situation.

With the proper stratergies and trained support in place no child should have to be removed. Really hope things work out.

Thanks for these responses and particularly to the parents of autistic/asperger children. I am unsure exactly what strategies and support are currently in place for this child - I know he has his own TA but I doubt he has all the things talked about here and I am assuming that hitting others is mainly about his stress levels being too high - even when it seems there is no obvious trigger, is this likely to be about a background stress level rising?

I still feel worried and miserable that there is an accident waiting to happen and have written a letter to send to the governors, cc to the head tomorrow, expressing my concerns and asking for a response.

Thanks Shiny for the reference to The Special Needs and Disability Act 2001, it's really helpful to know what framework everyone is working to.