'She has gone backwards': Father's impassioned plea to reopen special needs schools

Sophie-Mai Pierse, age 17, who has Down syndrome is missing her education at St Ita’s & St Joseph’s Special School in Tralee. Picture: Domnick Walsh

The father of a young girl with special needs has told of his dismay at watching a disconcerting regression in her educational development over the past month.

Sophie-Mai Pierse, who has Down syndrome, had been starting to catch up on her educational development at St Ita’s & St Joseph’s Special School in Tralee in the wake of the first lockdown when classes were shut down again at the start of the year.

The 17-year-old, who is non-verbal and has had other issues which have required various medical interventions and other supports, hasn’t been able to engage meaningfully with online classes despite the best efforts of her teachers.

“She has gone backwards significantly. She has gone back more than a year,” said her father Risteard Pierse.

“She had regressed in the first lockdown and wonderfully, she qualified for the July provision and had retrieved some of the lost ground, but through January it’s gone."

Her school is great because they have vast experience in figuring out each child with special needs to bring the child forward.

"Over the past month, despite efforts at online tuition and our parental engagement with homework, Sophie has regressed educationally to an extent that is most disconcerting," said Risteard.

“Last week we could see she had gone so far back she wasn’t recognising shapes like triangles and rectangles which she had no problem with a year ago — and certain words.” 

The Kerry solicitor, who wrote an open letter to teachers' unions last week, said he has been surprised at the stance in relation to the return of special needs students to schools.

“It is just dismaying knowing that the government and the ministers want the schools to reopen, the parents want the schools to reopen, many of the teachers and the SNAs want them to open as well but the unions are not embracing the situation," said Risteard.

“There is a moral imperative at this stage. The needs of these vulnerable children are so great that the government should push on."

This must happen now. They must set a date that it is opening next week.

“I had always found the unions good, not only at representation, but also having a wider vision of what would be in the best interests of a school situation," said Risteard.

“I find it most disconcerting that they seem to have lost that focus.

“The vision should be recognising the fact that there have been such setbacks for children with special needs.” 

He said he has been speaking to parents of children of special need who are struggling to cope.

Risteard Pierse homeschooling his daughter Sophie-Mai during the lockdown in Tralee.

“Sophie is in an OK place because she has a supportive family environment, and we take her for walks.

“I am aware of other families where challenging behaviours have returned and there are genuine stresses within families.

“Talking to other parents and hearing these stories, I’ve just decided to come out and implore the unions to disengage from their destructive stance and recognise the moral rightness of the need to go back.

“Other kids who don’t have special needs can embrace technology and the online classes, but my daughter and many other children are just not engaging. Teachers are doing their best but it is ineffective."

Parents just need hope, families are struggling with this week-by-week mentally.

He noted that the Minister for State at the Department of Health, Anne Rabbitte, has written to Education Minister Norma Foley offering to help solve the issue.

The Kerry solicitor said he has been taken aback by the continued closure of special needs schools as his daughter has always received support throughout her life.

“Sophie was born in early July 2003, just the week after the Special Olympics had concluded. That had been a transformative occasion for Irish society and how they viewed people with special needs as people with ability and potential," said Risteard.

"Along the way, this generation of persons with special needs have been well served by various governments in the last 17 years. It's been very positive.

“It’s fiercely disappointing the schools didn’t reopen but if the unions continue to frustrate the Government's wish to reopen schools, the Government should go ahead and the Norma Foley should give the direction they can reopen where principals and boards are willing to go ahead in cooperation with teachers and SNAs.”