Autistic girl has three different teachers in a month at Cork special school with suspensions 'crisis'
Kayla Henebry. Her mother Aisling said: 'She can thrive when she's in the correct environment.'
Like all teenage girls do, Kayla Henebry, 16, loves her style. “She’s a typical teenager,” her mother Aisling said. “Loves her hair, loves her lipstick.
"Kayla is a good child. When Kayla is in a good routine, she can work very well. She can thrive when she's in the correct environment.”
A student at Carrigaline Community Special School, Kayla is autistic and has an intellectual disability. “You could nearly say Kayla is non-verbal,” Aisling said.
“She only has enough for everyday words, like ‘drink’, ‘toast’, ‘noodles’. She couldn’t say to you ‘Can I have a packet of noodles please? She would just say one word, or with her hand bring you to it.
"She has an assisted communication device, through which she can communicate. She wouldn’t be able to say to me ‘they put me into a different classroom today with a different teacher, it drove me mad’. She would never say anything like that.”
In 2021, Kayla was one of many students in Cork left without a school place as they aged out of the junior system. “We didn’t have any options of what school to choose from,” Aisling said.
“I think at the time, we didn’t overly look into what was going to be in the school, what services were going to be there. We were just happy to get a space. It was very rushed and very quickly put together.”
In 2021, Carrigaline Community Special School was opened under the patronage of Cork Education and Training Board (Cork ETB) in direct response to a lack of school places. It was the first special school the patron opened in Cork.
As it is an educational patron, its students have not had direct access to respite services, unlike those with a traditional disability service provider.
Cork ETB also does not have direct access to therapists such as speech and language therapists, occupational therapists, and psychologists.
Last month, an Irish Examiner special report highlighted the concerns of parents at the school, including its high suspension rate, high staff turnover, and the impact on students.
Aisling was not among the parents the spoke to for that special report. Opened in 2021, the school issued 17 official suspensions in three years.
When quizzed on the matter, Taoiseach Micheál Martin said: "Suspensions are not — in my view, speaking as an educationalist — the ideal way to deal with behavioural issues or issues within a special needs context. But I know that the ETB in Cork is working with parents to try and resolve these issues.”
Aisling Henebry believes it has not been an easy road for her daughter. “At this stage now she should really be a lot more settled. There’s no consistency, there’s no familiarity.”
Since the start of the new term last month, Kayla has had three different teachers.
“I feel now she’s gone very into herself again, a lot of anxiety, a lot of upset, which then is leading to the challenging behaviours.
Last week, Kayla was suspended. It was not her first time being officially suspended by the school for the challenging behaviours she experiences when anxious, upset or agitated.
An email from the school, seen by the , described Kayla's suspension last week as an immediate suspension "due to the risk to the health and safety of Kayla and other pupils or staff" and cited challenging behaviours she exhibits when upset.
The letter added that with permission, the school would write to external agencies to “advocate for support” with managing her behaviour.
Another email sent to Aisling after Kayla was suspended in February 2024 said it followed "serious misconduct" and also cited "continuous disruption" to the learning environment.
“There was a lot of work put into place in the school last year with a previous teacher, and she thrived last year because of the consistency and routine,” Aisling said.
“It was a regular occurrence before where [she was officially suspended] several times. A lot of the time, they said it was down to her challenging behaviours, and a health and safety risk, but they say they are putting plans in place."
"Those plans aren’t working if she’s then been suspended again.”
Last year, a protocol was put in place to keep Kayla in a routine “from the minute she gets off the bus” down to what route would be taken to walk to her classroom.
“She hates change and disruption to her routine or anything like that.
"I couldn’t fault any teachers that Kayla has ever dealt with, I couldn’t fault any SNAs. They put their heart and souls into working with those children every single day. I have no doubt that its challenging.
"I understand that Kayla has a lot of needs, and a lot of challenging behaviours, and I appreciate every moment that they work with my child but it comes at a higher level.
“You feel sometimes the SNAs and teachers’ voices aren’t being heard at all. If something is not working, you need to put it right. If it's a health and safety issue, you fix the health and safety issue. It isn’t a reoccurring thing.
"It's not her first time being suspended: She's being suspended again for the same reasons. So, if it’s a continuous pattern, why isn’t it being fixed by suspension? It's not working. It must be frustrating when she can’t voice how she is feeling.
"Surely there has to be a better protocol in place when something like this happens. Suspension to her means nothing. All it is doing is causing stress, hurt, and upset to our family. She has no reasoning whatsoever as to what a suspension means, and it's not teaching her anything by suspending her.”
Aisling has also requested the incident reports from the school, which are filed each time there is an escalation in the classroom. “It's hard for me as a parent to paint a picture when Kayla can’t tell me what happened.
"I’m getting a one-sided story where I’m not seeing the full picture, but if I have an incident report, I can see what happened, and say ‘Ok, this happened this morning and I know that’s after setting her off, so let's try and avoid that tomorrow morning', but I'm not seeing the full picture.
"I was so upset [last week] that we are back down again this road after having such a brilliant year last year.”
Cork Education and Training Board (Cork ETB) said it does not comment on individual student circumstances.
"The care and welfare of our students and their educational progress is always the number one priority for Cork ETB and for our special schools. The staff in our special schools work exceptionally hard and are fully committed to providing a safe, supportive, and inclusive learning environment for all our students.
"Cork ETB values our staff, and we recognise the very important work they do in sometimes challenging situations."
Regarding suspensions in special schools, the use of suspension as a punitive measure is not the practice in Cork ETB Special Schools, it said.
"Cork ETB has a duty of care to ensure the safety of all students and staff and ensure a learning environment in which all students can access their education.
In certain extreme circumstances, where measures to de-escalate and manage the situation safely have not been successful, and where behaviours present a risk to the safety and well-being of the student and other students and staff, and to the learning environment, the removal of a student from the class or from the school for a short period has been necessary.
"This is done as a safety measure and not as a punitive one and is always a measure of last resort."
Cork ETB recognises that the children in its special schools need consistency in staffing, and it makes every effort to ensure in as far as is possible that this is the case, it said.
"In common with other special schools, the recruitment and retention of staff is a challenging issue. As with all workplaces, changes in staffing can happen for many reasons as part of the normal lifecycle of employment. As a responsible employer, Cork ETB must ensure that employees can avail of their statutory and other leave entitlements.
"Two Cork ETB special schools are involved in a Department of Education and Youth pilot project for the delivery of in-school therapy services. However, the current overall level of therapy services provided to students in our four special schools is not at a satisfactory level.
"The delivery of these therapies is not within our direct control, but Cork ETB continue to work with the Department of Education and Youth and other statutory bodies to improve the level of service provided.
"Our focus remains on building supports for our staff and students so that we continue to develop our special schools as safe and positive environments for all our students and staff.
The Department of Education also said it cannot comment on individual cases.
"The department has actively engaged with parents and Carrigaline Community Special School to address concerns raised. Minister Michael Moynihan, along with department officials, has met with parent groups and the school in question to support resolution efforts.
"The department’s inspectorate has also conducted several visits to Carrigaline Community Special School since its opening in 2021, including four advisory visits in 2024/25. The National Council for Special Education (NCSE) has provided advisor support to Carrigaline Community Special School every two weeks since the commencement of the HSE in-school therapy pilot.
"This support has been a combination of in-person and virtual support. The NCSE advisor is engaging with all new staff to provide training and support. The school will also be availing of further whole-school training in the next number of weeks."
This school also has access to support from the National Educational Psychological Service (NEPS), the department said.
"The department has published ‘Understanding Behaviours of Concern and Responding to Crisis Situations in Schools’, a comprehensive set of guidelines developed in response to the need for clearer support for schools in managing challenging behaviours and crisis situations.
"The guidelines were developed through extensive consultation and trialled in special schools. Grounded in a children’s rights perspective, the guidelines promote core values including child wellbeing, respect, collaboration, whole-school approaches, safety, and legal compliance. The department will continue to monitor implementation and update the guidelines as needed."
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