Child Injured at school

[mummysewell]

Can any one else help, i have a child that was severely injured in school 15th October (i have photos if they are allowed), an ambulance was called as they could not stop the bleeding, it resulted in emergency surgery and over 200 stitches and hes been left in a leg brace for a few weeks, Im not sure if i should be taking it further, my boy is being tested as we suspect hes on the spectrum some where and has issues with anxiety and has to be dealt with carefully in situations where conflicts with other children arise, however repeatedly the school have not done this and i have been in 100's of times and have email correspondence also, in one instance they twisted his arms behind his back. i understand he can be a handful but on this occasion the person he had a conflict with was in another room goading my child but he couldn't get to him so two staff members grabbed on each side, bearing in mind he recently fractured his left hand and a few days before had been sent home with an injury to his right hand, they hurt his hand so he managed to wriggle away and kicked a door, his foot went through reinforced glass, but it didn't shatter like it should have done if safety glass, it tore through his leg cutting to the bone. i know he should not have kicked the door but i cant see any reason as to why he was handled the way he was which resulted in him lashing out because they hurt him. they had disposed of the glass before i even got to the school and submitted a report to the HSE the same day, i thought they would have needed to investigate and check why the glass broke, the handing of the situation is questionable albeit the support staff did a fab job of helping to stop the bleed. The hole was so high on the door i cant work out how he got his leg up there so im wondering if they still had hold of him and he has kicked out giving him the height.

The school have not contacted me officially or t check on my child or advised details of what happened until yesterday when they left a voice mail asking if he was coming back to school.

I am so confused but things just don't seem to add u and the SEN co coordinator is lapse at best.

And to make things worse they have apparently replaced the glass with standard glass ?

any advice

Your child has had a serious injury and you suspect the school's health and safety procedures may have been a contributory factor.
First thing to do would be to check their policies - have they complied with their own procedures?
Then I think you need specialist legal advice. Exxplain what steps you think the school should have taken to avoid injury - e.g. Proper supervision, reinforced glass.

You could talk to ofsted? When an ambulance has to be called they have to report it to ofsted themselves....

I have a child with Sen so I understands. As PP said check their policies, especially the Sen policy and they will have something in there about physically handling a child, when they can/won’t handle them etc...

Hello, I am a teacher with experience of this so I am not just giving you my opinion this is from fact and through training. You are right to be concerned.

However, I need some more info before I can advise you further. I am assuming this is a mainstream school? Who was goading him? Child or adult? How old is your child? If his hand was injured a few days before, should he have been in school? What first aid did he get the few days before for the hand and do you have paperwork for this? When you say he is being tested, who by? External agencies? CAMHS? Or just the school? Has he ever hurt another child/adult at school?

Now I feel the most important question for you is.... have you been notified every time he has been restrained? Do the adults in school have restraint training? I ask this because no adult should be restraining or even moving a child in school without training. It is not safe. To me it sounds like the adults may not be trained as arms behind the back is a definite no no! At my school there are 2 people trained and on the rare occasion it is needed they are called and come immediately. I have not been trained but I have seen the restraint and it is literally to hold arms by the side and to almost hug arms around the child from behind so they can't last out or hurt anyone.

Sorry for all of the questions but hopefully I can give you some advice and where to go next.

As an aside, they clearly are not meeting your child’s needs. Sen or not, a child should not be sustaining such injuries.

Hi Thanks for all the replies,
Russell19 - It is main stream school and it was a child that has consistently been shall we say pushing his buttons, the school themselves have admitted other children know how to invoke a reaction out of him, by using certain names that make him feel ashamed of himself, he struggles with emotion and cant cope so he either runs or fights the person, hes been doing some work with CAHMS but they said the school needed to do their part first and had to write to the school to tell them what they needed to do, i.e get the educational psychologist involved and refer to the early help team, ive been fighting for the school to refer him for over 2 years!. He has hit other children and other children have hit him, he doesn't set out to start fights but has a very back and white mind and if he thinks some one has wronged him hit him or is bullying others he has a habit of involving himself, in this instance the child had hit him and he had walked away which is a massive achievement, but the teachers involved didn't reprimand the child involved and he then started taunting him about his looks and where he lives and that were poor cos im a single parent etc. He received an ice pack and asked me to pick him up, the fingers were just wrapped up for a few days but he couldn't write as the TA was doing this for him. the other hand was fractured a few weeks before and was seen at A and E and was splinted, both hand injuries happened in school. Once hes finished the assessment through early help and school CAHMS have said he can have diagnostic testing by them subject to the results, but in inadvertently we are just doing a tick box exercise as all the methods they have implemented have all been done before.

No never i only found out when my child came home and had marks all over him, this was done just before school pick up and all the parents could see through the window and to stop them looking the closed the blinds.
I'm not sure on the restraint training so i will look into this. they grabbed him from behind so its hard to tell exactly who was involved and as the school hasn't once explained or give me their account im at a loss, but i have asked them for a written account.

Well I would suggest the ed psych needs to be contacted urgently. First arrange a meeting with the SENCO straight away. He needs more support than he is getting and needs referring.

As you have said I would ask for a written report of the incident and check it is signed by witnesses who were there so that it is accurate. Ask if the report has been sent to anyone like HSE, pp said they have to inform ofsted, they don't, only if it is their fault which I am assuming the school are not seeing this incident as their fault.

I would ask to meet the headteacher to ask about the restraint being used and the staff training as it is clearly not being done properly. (You may have a legal case here) Ask to be called immediately when any restraint has been used as you may be able to calm him down better. (This may not be ideal with work etc but if that's what you need to do to sort this it needs doing.) I am also sure it is good practice to get permission for restraint to be used and to inform you each time. If I was you right now I'd go so far to say you do not want him to be restrained due to 3 injuries and they are not capable or doing it properly. If they cannot control him without restraint I'd be questioning if he should be at that school or somewhere else.... His injuries could've been much worse and he potentially could hurt someone else too.

I would not go into massive detail or complaint about the glass as if he was being calmed down or restrained properly this wouldn't have happened. As you said it sounds like he was being carried in the air or something.

You need to make the school know you think his behaviour is unacceptable and you support them on that, however the restraint thing is a massive red flag to me. He is clearly not getting what he needs and tbh they may already be considering seeking options to get him moved.... once he has an EHC or is diagnosed with a specific need he can't be expelled. This may be their reasoning for not referring him yet. I may be wrong but could be an option.

If you want to pm me feel free. Good luck x

I agree that the restraint aspect is a concern. Nobody should be restraining a child unless they are properly trained, and all episodes of restraint have to be logged. There should be regular contact with you. I think you should follow this up.

Your poor son. Hope he recovers ok.

Imcidently, it is not true that OFSTED have to be informed if an ambulance is called to school. The local authority have to be informed of any injury that requires hospital treatment and they should follow it up.

Honestly it sounds like that school is not the right one for you son and that he needs more support than they can provide correctly.

Your poor son, I hope he is recovering o.k.

When my eldest got locked out of the school and they didn't realise for around 10 minutes, the school said they had a duty to report it to the Local Authority, so I would assume such a serious incident would have the same requirements.

It sounds like there are a lot of issues with the school, I'd really recommend speaking to SOS!SEN www.sossen.org.uk/ or IPSEA www.ipsea.org.uk/. There's also the Mumsnet SN Chat/SN Children boards, they can be a little quiet but there's also a lot of helpful posters who may be able to help.