'Michelle was making good progress with ADHD treatment and then school stopped'

Ger and Sherri O'Donnell with their daughter Michelle.

When the Irish Examiner spoke to Ger O’Donnell on Friday afternoon, he had yet to break the news to his daughter Michelle that she would not be returning to school as planned.

Michelle, who is 15, attends school in St Paul’s in Montenotte.

“She also used to avail of the services in the Cope Foundation before Covid-19 kicked in," said Ger. 

"She has a pretty complex medical background. She is non-verbal and was diagnosed in 2019 with pretty severe ADHD, and has both physical and mental disabilities as well. She can comprehend a lot. Unfortunately, she can comprehend exactly the changes going around her, like missing school.” 

The abrupt way the school closures happened, particularly last March, set us back. What we found is that we were making very good progress with the ADHD treatment for several months and then everything just stopped suddenly.

"To be honest, she regressed on us. She was very uneasy, very anxious, and started developing things we’d never seen before. 

"Things like vocal stimming. It was 100% down to the lockdown and the missing of her support network, and school in particular. Her school has been absolutely amazing. 

We could start to see her recovering. Now here we are. It is vicious, the way the Government has turned and locked us out again.

“To the point where we had told Michelle that she was going back to school.” 

“She was excited to be going back on Monday. We’re just trying to figure out what support will be in place next week, but we have to tell her Monday is off, and that we don’t know when she’ll be going back. We are into several weeks of just poor anxiety, tantrums, and sadness."

"[For the minister] to use the word 'paused' — to me that's just political spin. The schools weren't consulted on this, nobody was consulted on this. They went ahead without it. So when I hear [her use] words like 'paused', I think that's a word that means nothing to us." 

When decisions have to be made on public health grounds, everyone has to balance competing interests, according to Gareth Noble, children's rights advocate and solicitor. 

"We learned from the last lockdown that it is impossible for a lot of children with additional needs to participate effectively in remote learning," he said.

The numbers are quite small when compared to the school population, he added. "Even within that, there'll be children with medical needs who will not be able to come to school."

"So we are talking about small numbers and we are talking about children in an educational setting who are the most vulnerable, and therefore I don't believe it's beyond the capacity of the Department of Education and the teachers' unions to come up with a workable solution." 

"We really need to prioritise children in general, but particularly these categories of children where education at home is a non-runner. 

"I understand the frustrations and concerns of the school communities in terms of communication with the Department of Education." 

"But in some respect, that doesn't take away from the fact that these children need on-site educational provision. Given the numbers involved and the level of expertise we have in the education system, it is certainly not beyond their ability, skills and experience to deliver for these children."