We need a dose of reality and a healthy debate about autistic children

THAT poor child. He is aged 11, has autism and ADHD, and was left, says his mother, alone in a converted bathroom in a school in Co Kildare for five hours. His mother posted a photograph on the web showing him dismantling a light fitting, because he was frustrated.

If the Children’s Referendum meant anything, surely it meant an end to this violation of a child’s human rights.

Regulations about the use of ‘withdrawal rooms’ are decided by school boards, like far too much about our schools.