Today I picked up my daughter from school, she’s year 1, and I’m not happy at all with how she was treated by her teacher. For a bit of background info, she has been put on the sen register about a month into starting reception last year and is awaiting an appointment later this month to assess her for adhd. She is definitely on the more severe side of the spectrum and I won’t deny she can be a challenge some of the time although she is a very sweet and loving little girl who is just struggling as she awaits the help she needs.
The school however are in no way trained or equipped to deal with her and I understand she will need one to one and the school need a diagnosis to access funding for this but even as a basic understanding it is seriously lacking.
Her teacher this year is fairly young and I’m not sure how long she has been teaching, I hadn’t had many problems with her before hand other than she sometimes upsets my daughter as she doesn’t understand her but other than that she had been trying her best to implement structure and routine that may help my child.
Today is where I’ve really seen a problem with the teacher. On arrival to my daughters class room, the teacher has come over to me and explained that my daughter has at lunch play time decided to fully lie down in a puddle and roll around in it, this means she is absolutely soaking wet.
The teacher has then told me that she’s used it as a learning experience and left my 5 year old child with complex needs in the same wet clothes for 3 hours until the end of the day when I’ve picked her up as a reminder to not roll in puddles again.
My daughter has repeatedly told the teacher she was cold and uncomfortable which even the teacher told me herself when she explained it was a teachable moment as to stop my daughter doing it again. She was fully aware of the discomfort of my child.
I then had to take my child home in weather that was around 9 degrees at 3pm while she’s still very wet so I dread to think how wet she had been 3 hours prior while air drying off at school from being left in the wet clothes. My daughters coat had been left outside, still dripping wet so I took off my own coat to give to her as her lips were blue, she was still wet and looks so so sad while telling me she was freezing. It brought me to tears to see my daughter in that much distress and when I rang my brother to explain, I was a sobbing mess.
The clothes she was wearing when she was given back to me were a pinafore, polo top and cycle shorts and all off it was wet enough to ring out all the way down to her underwear.
Regardless of how complex a child is or even their age, no child should be left like this at school for 3 hours and then sent home like it in the cold. I had no other option than just to get her home as soon as possible as I wasn’t made aware to bring spare clothes and she wasn’t offered any spares from school.
If I was to have done this to my child I can guarantee the school would report me for neglect so why can they get away with it. It is basic common decency to help someone out of wet clothes and offer dry ones and honestly how sadistic must someone be to watch a child suffer like that for 3 hours and do nothing and then to be as brazen as that and come to me and tell me if was to teach my child a lesson and not see something no wrong with it.
No matter my child or not, no child should have to be treated like that In a place that they should be safe and it makes me worry what else could happen if the teacher sees no problem in this.
I have been told by people to take it to the police as it’s child abuse but I’m not sure if that’s too far and it’s just being said because of how angry people are once hearing what’s happened?
I have rung the headteacher who has agreed it should never have happened but I don’t feel like that’s enough
What should I do now, I genuinely worry now that my child and others will be mistreated but at the same time I don’t want to be over reacting because of the mama bear instinct I have to burn everyone to the ground who hurts my child! Any advice would be appreciated.