Tourette’s and school?

[Springersrock]

What can I reasonably expect from school?

DD, 15/year 11 has Tourette’s. She has always been really well supported by school, however, another girl in her friendship group has recently developed tics and it’s causing all sorts of issues for DD.

DD’s tics are very suggestible - even talking to her about tics will set them off, so as soon as she sees her friend tic-ing, DD will have what she calls ‘tic attacks’ - crazy, prolonged episodes of horrendous movement and verbal tics

Her tics are quite painful - she’ll repeatedly punch her chest, or gouge at her thigh (amongst others , verbal and movement) so she’s having a really hard time with it all.

Her friend is in all her classes and with the COVID restrictions and bubbles neither of them can be moved so we’re a bit stuck.

There also seems to be an issue with their friendship - friend is spreading lies about DD and just generally being nasty

DD can’t carry on like this - she wasn’t able to complete any of her mocks, most of her days are spent sitting in the medical room, her legs are a scratched mess, her chest is purple but I have no idea what to suggest or where we can go from here but DD just cannot be around this friend

If she is in the class, but seated far away from her would that help?

Thanks!

They’ve been moved so that her friend is behind her, over the opposite side of the class. Unfortunately friend’s tics are also verbal so DD can still hear her

DD tries to stay away from her as much as she can, having very nicely explained why, but her friend seems to have an issue with it as she’s following DD everywhere she goes and generally being quite unpleasant. I’m not really sure what’s going on there.