ASD Dd discriminated against at school?

[ArseInTheCoOpWindow]

How would you handle this?

Dd16 was diagnosed a month ago, but was obviously showing symptoms for ages. She started y 12 in September.

Her main things are heirarcichal communication and sensory overload as well as bad anxiety ( usually social) She struggles to talk to teachers, answer questions etc. Most teachers are fine with this. But we have one who:

After being informed she wasn’t to highlight Dd or pounce on her with a question kept her behind and told her she would make her answer questions to check her understanding. Dd very distressed.

Then same teacher sent the class individual presentations to do. Dd worked really hard, but became increasingly anxious, and left school on the day of her presentation with severe anxiety. The teacher ended up doing the presentation.

Yesterday all the class were given a little postcard congratulating them on their presentation. Dd didn’t get one, even though she’d spent hours doing the work.

l think she should never have been expected to do the presentation as she has social communication difficulties. It was her disability that prevented her from doing it, but she worked really hard for it. But still didn’t get a postcard. This is indirect discrimination?

She got an 8 in this subject at GCSE and l feel this teacher is just not supporting, helping or accommodating her disability in any way.

I told her support worker who was horrified. How do we go back to school yet again?

Bump

Anyone?

think you need a meeting with the SENCO to get to the bottom of what individual teachers were actually told and make sure repeat situations don’t occur. For example ”After being informed she wasn’t to highlight Dd or pounce on her with a question” This could well have been passed on as don’t ask DD a question in front of the class so asking DD questions individually after the lesson to check understanding would be a reasonable adjustment. If DD needs a different adjustment then the information passed to the teacher needs to be more explicit.

Similar for the presentation, the information passed to the teacher may not have covered presentations only questioning. Did you contact the school when the task was set to highlight DD would be able to make the presentation but not deliver it and a reasonable adjustment was necessary?


The postcard thing I think is PA on behalf of the teacher and needs raising.

They were told not to pounce on her with a question,. Which this teacher initially refused to do. All the others have been fine.

We told the Sendco she had communication difficulties and hated being spotlighted. I assume the teacher would have known not to ask Dd to do a presentation.

l will raise the postcard thing.

Thank you

I think you are assuming too much. From your posts I suspect the teacher wasn’t told DD wouldn’t be able do a presentation or not to ask her questions after the lesson only during.

No? She didn’t keep her behind to ask her questions. She kept her behind to tell her she had the right to ask her unsolicited questions in the class, even though we had specifically requested not to.

l didn’t 27 years as a secondary teacher, l would never have expected a student on the spectrum to do a presentation if they didn’t want. I would always allow them to opt out. We didn’t know it was going to be an issue as she’d never done one before. She couldn’t do her Doanish oral exam, it all stems from social anxiety. And l kind of think that the teacher should have judged this better. She’s not an NWY. We have made it clear she has quite a bad social communication. Issue.

I agree, are you assuming the SENCO has spoken to all dd's teachers and high lighted the points you think should be highlighted? and that the teachers understand that because she can't manage x, she also shouldn't be asked to do y? I think you are expecting far more than is likely to have happened, it took us 5 years just to get ds sat at the front of all his secondary school classes because he has ASD and can't filter out distractions. He went from me expecting him to be moved down a set in English as he was doing so badly to him getting an 8 and a 9 in his GCSE's - but he wasn't a problem behaviourally so no one was really inclined to do anything.

She didn't get a postcard because she didn't present her presentation - kind of the point. What she needs to do in future is ask to record the presentation and it be played back rather than do it 'live'. This is acceptable in English GCSE spoken thingy so shouldn't be a problem and she will then be participating more fully. When you have a child with ASD you are constantly looking for work arounds and ways they can participate fully.

You also need to speak to the English teacher directly if possible, not the SENCO, and explain the situation fully - don't go in all guns blazing. Tell the teacher the things she can't do and suggest alternatives that she can cope with. Explain the situation fully as the teacher may have very little understanding of ASD.

Apologies, I read your OP as though she had made her stay behind to ask her questions. That changes things and of course the teacher shouldn’t have done that.

My point still stands on the presentations though. Asking questions and presentations are different and the information passed on about reasonable adjustments needed most likely didn’t cover it.

and that the teachers understand that because she can't manage x, she also shouldn't be asked to do y?

This is what I meant about asking questions and presentations being different.

An alternative reasonable adjustment to recording it is to make the presentation to only 1 person.

+She didn't get a postcard because she didn't present her presentation - kind of the point*

She didn’t do the presentation due to a disability. She did a huge amount of work
for it though. Because of this disability she was singled out and not given a card. She would never record it and present it. For English gcse she had a lovely teacher and managed to present it to her on her own.

I think the teacher has very little understanding of ASD. However she has 6 other teachers who aren’t causing any problems. But as a teacher you are usually aware that ASD have social anxiety issues.

But as a teacher you are usually aware that ASD have social anxiety issues.

This isn’t my experience. I really think you are assuming the teacher has knowledge and information they may not.

Could you ask the if DD could do the presentation to just the teacher like she did for GCSE?

Yes, we could ask for that, but she’s scared shitless of her.

l was speaking of my experience as a teacher. I always trod carefully round any student with ASd re public speaking.

You may well have, but from experience of having DC with SEN and supporting other families many teachers aren’t aware of the links between ASD, social anxiety and public speaking. They need explicit information from SENCOs, tutors, HOYs, parents as to what reasonable adjustments are necessary,