children with special needs

whosthekat

We were not so lucky with his first school, he was bullied very badly, but he coped until he got to year 3, at this time his new teacher bullied him too. She was one of those people who believe the only child who deserves extra attention is a gifted child and my son has learning difficulties. She put her hand up in his face every time he even tried to speak, and no one in the class was allowed to speak to him or comfort him as he sat there crying. I found out when the mother of a girl in his class called me because her daughter had come home in tears about the way he was being treated. When confronted, the principal had the nerve to ask "are you sure it isn't that his perception of events is wrong? He is autistic, after all". This was in a meeting with my son's phychologist, the Department of Education, the school principal and the school counsellor. My husband had to physically restrain me at this point. Even when the psychologist pointed out that another "normal" child had raised the alarm, they all just looked at each other with that "mm hmmm" look. At this point we applied for a position in an autism transition class and fortunately he was accepted into the class. It was based at another mainstream school a few suburbs away. The concept is they go into that class and are eventually reintegrated back into their mainstream school. We actually moved house so we were in the zoned area for the new school, he is currently transitioning into a mainstream year 5 class at that school and he is a different kid now. Still on antidepressant/anti anxiety meds resulting from the treatment at the other school, but nobody questions his diagnosis here and the other kids all understand, having grown up with the "special needs classes" on site. Unfortunately due to the late diagnosis, he will be reintegrating essentially into year 6 and will only have about 3 terms to adjust to mainstream before he is off to high school! Soooo not looking forward to that, but we'll get there! At least my younger son is getting his schooling in this more understanding environment at an earlier stage in his life, we have just applied for a spot in the special class for him too, although due to high demand he may not secure a spot. He has learning difficulties too but at least this school wants to help, if he doesn't get into the autism class, he will be classified as a priority for in-class support which will help greatly. He had a kid bully him, I told the principal and within 2 days the kid's parents had been notified and he had been reprimanded for his behaviour. Slightly different response than my older son's first school! Funny, as apparently both schools have the same zero tolerance policy toward bullying. Says alot about general understanding of special needs, doesn't it?!