Family ‘gutted’ by ban on helper dog from son's school

The mother of a boy with cerebral palsy who was awarded €5,500 by the Workplace Relations Commission said her family was “gutted” when his school would not allow him to bring his assistance dog with him.

Pauline Kelly-Melia said she was all the more hurt by the decision because she was informed of the decision by letter on the same day she spoke with the principal of Knocktemple National School in Virginia, Co Cavan, who never told her the school was banning the dog.

Ms Kelly-Melia said the assistance dog, Aidan, has not only prevented her son Luke from falling but has helped develop him physically.

“We wanted Aidan because we thought he would help Luke and stop Luke from falling. What we didn’t understand until after we got Aidan was that after he came along Luke stopped deteriorating and started progressing,” Ms Kelly-Melia told the Anton Savage Show on Today FM.

“It was a huge thing for us as a family and for Luke physically, because the concern is when children who have cerebral palsy are at Luke’s stage in life, they start to grow and have growth spurts that cause major problems for them physically and that’s when the deterioration starts to become a problem.

“The further you walk, the stronger you get and the stronger you get the further you walk. So the further Luke was walking the stronger he was getting, he was building up his muscles because he couldn’t walk very far without Aidan because he kept falling. Also Aidan pulls Luke along so he needs less energy to walk further,” she said.

Ms Kelly-Melia said Aidan was initially brought to Luke’s sixth class with a view to her son using the dog when going into secondary school. However, she received a letter from the school on the last day before the Christmas informing her that the dog would no longer be allowed on the premises.

“We were gutted, and shocked, and hurt really because when I was sitting chatting to the principal that morning, giving him his Christmas present, we were having great craic and I was slagging him off, I remember distinctly, he had a Rudolph tie on him, there was a Christmas thing going on, and no mention of it. No mention of it at all,” she said.

“I just thought ‘oh for heaven’s sake, how could you do that?’ He must have known the letter was waiting for me.”

Luke Kelly-Melia and his assistance dog, a golden retriever called Aidan. Aidan has prevented Luke, who has cerebral palsy, from falling and has helped him develop physically.Luke’s school banned the dog from the premises — his mother says the family got the letter telling them of this on the last day before Christmas. Picture: Eric Luke / The Irish Times

This week it emerged that Luke, now 17, was awarded €5,500 after the Workplace Relations Commission found the school discriminated against him on disability grounds.

Ms Kelly-Melia said that the incident left her son “shook” and in fear that any incidents involving Aidan would see him expelled from secondary school.

“He came into that school quite shook because he had a fear then, as a result of the whole incident, that ‘if something goes wrong here Mammy they’re going to expel me, I’m going to end up at home, I’ll never be able to go to school again’. For the first few months he was in there he was constantly worrying,” she said.

She also praised Luke’s new school who welcomed the dog “with open arms” and the Cork-based charity Dogs for the Disabled, which provided her family with Aidan.

“They are not a funded organisation, they are on their own,” she said.

“I can’t say for sure where Luke would be without Aidan but my gut instinct is he would be a wheelchair user.”