Letters to the Editor: The reality of autism classes in schools

'What school staff think is right for autistic kids and what is actually right for them are, in many cases, worlds apart.'

Many of the stories in Jennifer Horgan’s article ‘ An autism class opens. What happens then?’ resonate deeply with my wife and I with respect to our experiences with schools and autism. We have two autistic kids who attended the local primary school after their older sibling.

From the off, they were treated as being “defiant” or simply bold and punished along whatever lines the teacher saw fit. In one instance, we were told by the special education teacher (in a meeting that included the principal) that an autistic meltdown was a deliberate “choice behaviour” and not due to autism.

My wife particularly has tried to work with the school and has tried to explain what is needed to teachers at the start of each year. This ranged from arranging meetings to explain in person and providing documents and letters from every expert we have seen (both longform and summarised). These have been mostly ignored in favour of whatever the teacher thought was right. Similar to the experience of other parents in your article, if we questioned this we were talked down to and generally told that what we were asking for was just “not how they ran their classroom”.

For extra fun, my wife was told publicly several times that the problem was her and her parenting, and that if she was more disciplined that there wouldn’t be any problems. She was in the yard each time collecting the kids after school, surrounded by other parents.

My wife and I have often talked about how to overcome this and much of the problem seems to come down to the fact that we are just not believed. Your article mentions a child that had a fidget taken away and used as a reward — would the same be done with another child’s wheelchair?

We had similar experiences with the board of management too. It got to the point where they would simply ignore us, so we decided to take it to the Ombudsman for Children. My wife had kept a record of all dealings with the school and the ombudsman agreed with our complaints. In the end all they have the power to do is write to the school and ask them to basically “try harder”. The school continued to ignore us, and that was that.

Problems like this continue into secondary school. We had an offer of a place in a secondary school that had an “autism class”. We decided to learn from primary school and press for the details. It turns out that class would not actually teach the curriculum and was more of a “time out” space. I have this in writing.

I do believe that many of the people involved genuinely think they are helping, but our kids have suffered directly (and seriously) from what they think is right. What school staff think is right for autistic kids and what is actually right for them are, in many cases, worlds apart.

All of this has led to the situation where one of our autistic kids is being permanently home-schooled and we are giving serious thought to doing the same for the second. It is better for their mental health and ironically also better for their education as they can learn without being stressed.

Lloyd Courtney

Dun Laoghaire

Co Dublin

Level the playing field for landlords

As an accidental landlord of my late mother’s house, I’m sickened at the disparity between private landlords and corporate landlords.

Corporate/Reit landlords are guaranteed tax-free rental income AND are exempt from CGT when selling on the properties.

As a landlord of one property, I pay over 50% income tax/USC & PRSI and will pay 33% CGT whenever I sell.

The growing public anger at successive governments’ complicity in enabling the current totally defunct and not-fit-for-purpose housing market has only resulted in a raft of anti-landlord measures (anti-private landlords only). Governments seeking to bask in populist anti-landlord rhetoric, pass new rules, restrictions, conditions on private landlords constantly in the hope of kidding voters that they are addressing the issue.

Private landlords have left the rental market in drives over recent years. I only remain a private landlord as the property has been my family home for four generations and I have great sentimental attachment. Despite this, I will be selling up before the next government is formed as it is likely to have Sinn Féin in power, who are even more rabidly anti-landlord. The notion of restricting property owners to sell their own property only with tenants in-situ is the latest but by far the most sickening final straw. Only being able to sell to a buyer who is legally forced to keep tenants in place is just crazy.

Level the playing field Give the same tax breaks to private landlords as enjoyed by corporate/Reit landlords. Sadly, I fear this is not likely to happen as such an about-face in desperately failed housing policies would emphasise the degree of political failure. Why is social housing no longer delivered by Government/local authorities? The answer is simple. The amount of money required to build houses is so huge, that money isn’t being made available, as to do so would take away from central Government money that is needed to buy votes around the country for election days. Irish political society has morphed into an all-reaching need to obtain power at ejections and thereafter, retain power. This can only be done by throwing money into marginal constituencies and areas with large voter-followings.

Politicians won’t change the system they’ve created for their own purposes — turkeys voting for Christmas. So how do we move on? Take the political veto away from the vested interests of politicians and instead entrust housing strategy/funding to citizen assemblies only whose recommendations are binding for government to enact. Give the citizens’ assemblies best-in-world non-political advisers to guide their decision-making and then do it — no vested political parties’ interests are able to block or change the recommendations.

Government is supposed to be for the people, not political parties after all. Sadly, that’s not been the case in regard to housing and it’s gone beyond overdue for a tearing-up of existing “policy” and start afresh with decisions made for the betterment of the citizens of Ireland instead of politicians who are so far removed from reality and driven by party whips to vote the “the right way” in the Dáil. Time for change is overdue.

Gerry Carroll

Dundalk

Co Louth

Growing schoolbags

I was struck by the photo on the front of Saturday’s Irish Examiner showing the two young girls holding hands as they headed off to primary school. What really struck me was the size of their schoolbags! They were huge! Surely there must be some way around this.

Brendan Casserly

Bishopstown

Cork

Reinstating therapist a ‘red herring’ move

Elaine Loughlin relays the supposedly good news that there is to be an immediate “reinstatement” of therapists to special schools ( Therapists reinstated in special schools from September’, August 22). While such an announcement will be a boon to some parents, and of course the teaching staff of special schools who struggle to deal with the priority needs of their pupils, it promises a false and flawed dawn in the round.

The recently launched Progressing Disability Services template, which has not been equipped with the requisite human resources, nor afforded genuine handover co-operation nor appropriately diligent HSE oversight management, has been an organisational and operational disaster in its attempted implementation. Not because of any lack in dedicated willingness of coal-face clinicians, but because of poor planning projections vis-a-vis therapist numbers and a reluctance for prior service provision systems to engage the change with the creative assistance required for comprehensively reconfiguring service delivery. The change envisaged in the PDS re-organisation was mammoth and fundamental, but the scope of salient support to enact same was paltry and pathetic.

Thus, the minister’s sudden, shoddy and self-promotional directive designed to be seen to be doing something for the issue. Ann Rabitte’s “salvo-discharge” to rescue the serious impasse, has merely knocked the PDS on the head while camouflaging the true underlying malaise across the children’s disability service...A populist sticking-plaster approach which will ultimately serve little viable, valid or valuable purpose. In the long run, this crass intervention will satisfy only a false semblance of action. Typical politician’s modus operandi.

The fallacious nonsense claim of “launching international campaigns” for therapist recruitment is a vacuous “red-herring” announcement. Already, many therapists are exiting children disability services, departing the faltering PDS, thus depleting therapeutic delivery capacity even further from an existing low. The “hole in the bucket, dear Liza” ditty springs to mind, as per continuous advisories failing to solve the core predicament every time.

The PDS template demanded professional hatching and dispatching. Instead a travesty of truth, a litany of failure and a dearth of mature commitment has prevailed. “Data on a spreadsheet” trumps “boots on the ground” it seems in this huge challenge to deliver decent disability services for children across the country. How sad for all concerned. Shame on the shallow, fallacious political announcement which pretends to respond worthily to a very difficult scenario, pulling the rug from under a nascent, fragile and vulnerable PDS programme.

Jim Cosgrove

Lismore

Co Waterford