Do mainstream schools care about disabled pupils?

[chriz101]

I was working as a TA and then in the last year as part of the National Tutoring Programme. I have found during this time that schools do not take the needs of disabled pupils seriously. I was working with a pupil who had epilepsy and had a drop seizure on the way back to the classroom. The pupil was falling face first onto a concrete floor and I broke the fall and carefully laid the pupil down to avoid injury. I then took her back to her classroom and reported the incident to the teacher. I was sacked the same day because I toughed a child. I'm not sure what I was meant to do, just let the pupil smash into the floor and sustain serious injuries? I lost my job overnight and the pupil lost the only person they knew who also had epilepsy.

I now have no job and no money because I cared what happened to the pupil. I can't believe that a school would deliberately allow a pupil to be injured when there is a responsible adult around who could stop this, but that appears to be the policy.

I have no work and no money because of this and more importantly the pupils I was tutoring lost their tutor. I am now looking for work again and hoping that someone here can help me.

What was the reason given for your dismissal? Are you in a union?

I was told that I should not have touched the pupil and dealt with the situation after the pupil had fallen. That is the reason I was given. Also I worked for an agency so you don't have any rights under the employment contract.

I can't help feel there is more to this.

I doubt this is about touching a child but more how you handled the whole situation? Did you follow the pupil's IHCP? Were you supposed to stop the child falling during a seizure or not restrict their movement - it can be dangerous? How did you break the child's fall? So you weren't sacked you just weren't asked back by the school? If you worked for an agency why haven't you been offered other work - if the agency haven't given you more work because of this incident it suggests there's more to the story?

There was an investigation which said I had done nothing wrong, both from the school and the agency. I have been offered no other work by the agency, and having epilepsy myself I know how to handle this kind of situation. I'm sure the pupils parents would not have wanted their child to be seriously injured by falling face down onto a concrete floor if this could be safely prevented. However I was sacked before any investigation was carried out.

Were you sacked though, or just not asked back to that school? There's obviously more to this if you haven't been offered further work from the agency despite you saying the investigation cleared you of wrong doing.

Did you follow the IHCP? Pupil's IHCPs can differ even when they have the same condition, just because you have epilepsy doesn't mean the management of it is the same as the pupil's.

The pupil did not have an IHCP. The school did not even tell me the pupil had epilepsy, I noticed an absence seizure and reported this to the school, then they told me the pupil had epilepsy and I asked to see the ICHP but the school said there was not one. Since both the school and the agency have told me that I followed all the correct procedures and did everything correctly I fail to see how there can be more to it, as surely the agency would not have put me back on their books without explaining if I had done something wrong!

But if the agency accept you didn't do anything wrong why have they not offered you other work? Something just doesn't add up. If the pupil has epilepsy they should have an individual health care plan. Why was the child walking about the school if they had had an absence seizure? In those who have drop attacks absence seizures are often a warning sign.

OP everyone is entitled to their opinion, there's no need, and it is poor form, to PM me to tell me to stop. I'm only saying what it appears like. I don't know why you bothered posting if you only want posts offering one view.