Mother may take children’s case to Europe

A MOTHER whose two children have been turned away from a special language school said she is going to take their case to the European courts if necessary.

Caroline O'Dwyer and her husband, Paul, have battled for years to get intensive language therapy for their six- year-old daughter, Shannon, and four year-old son, Paul Jnr, who both have language disorders. However, there's no place for them at the local language school in Kilkenny city as they have to be in a mainstream school for a year to qualify. But the classroom assistants they need to go to a mainstream school outside the city have not been sanctioned by the Department of Education and Science.

"I want to be able to look my children in the eyes and tell them I did everything I possibly could for them. I don't want to go to court, as I have enough on my plate. My husband works for Radio Kilkenny and that is threatened with closure," Mrs O'Dywer said. "But I'm being forced to take legal advice and battle for them. I could have put them into school and let a teacher discover they have communication difficulties. But I went through the proper channels and look where it got us.