Child with Autism taught in a cupboard

[littleredcorvette]

I've just read the shocking story of a 10 year old boy with Autism who, for the past 8 months, has been taught in a store cupboard
The following is from the original story on the Raising Kids website:
News that an autistic schoolboy in Scotland has spent the past eight months being taught in a school cupboard has shocked disabled rights groups. 10-year-old Oliver McCleary has been receiving lessons in the school store cupboard at Castle Douglas primary school, in Dumfries and Galloway since August. The schoolboy's education authority said that he was unable to use the school's new portacabin classroom as safety furniture hadn't yet been installed.
'This is a shocking situation and on the face of it a breach of the Disability and Discrimination Act 1995,' said Chris Oswald of the Disability Rights Commission in Scotland. 'It appears that the school is prepared to make do, causing massive disruption to the boy's education when they should be making every effort to prepare him with the same level of education as other non-disabled children. We will be contacting Dumfries and Galloway Council urgently to investigate how and why this situation has developed and why it has been allowed to carry on for so long.'

i read this too last week in the paper, i was shocked to say the least, and the parents didn't even know!

I read that also, terrible

wondered if it would be mentioned on here!!!

I don't kow about this case and can't comment BUT I used to use my store cupboard if a child wanted NO distractions during work or if they had a headache or something.

BUT my store cupboard was massive and was actually a store room more than a cupboard. It had several comfy chairs in it and I often used it myself if I had no classes. I never closed the door on the child and always made sure they were happy to be there.

I know its not the same

Depends what they mean by cupboard. Lots of TEACHH bays look like cupboards as well.

DS1 used to get taught in isolation about 98% of the time in mainstream. That's why it was so pointless him being there.

Been pondering this. A cupboard is probably better than a corridor where lots of autistic children are taught in mainstream. The actual space required to accomodate autistic children in mainstream is something that was not even considerd before inclusion was brought in (well surprise surprise).

This reminds me of the thread about the boy with SN who was being taught in the entrance hall.

The 2kids I know in mainstream at the moment are taught in a corridor. DS1 was either in a separate room, or right by the door next to the corridor (which he thoguht was great because he could up and run away)

think the fact the parents were so angry about their ds being taught in a store cupboard, was that he was being taught in there for nearly 9m without them knowing, i think i would feel the same

Not really relevant to this discussion but I had most of my A' level history lessons in an art stock room. There was only me doing A' level history and they 'forgot' to allocate a classroom. Got locked in there once with my history teacher. That was a hard one to live down.