Tuesday Jun 21, 2022

That’s Not Inclusion

Summary

This week Alison is joined by Hasna and Suzana to talk with Huma who is currently going through a particularly bad break-up with her son's school.

Unfortunately, this is a common occurrence that a lot of parents will experience

Topics

00:00 - This Life, the chronicles of Autism moms podcast, series 1 episode 17 – That’s not inclusion!

01:20 – Can you just share with us Huma, what is the current situation?

04:40 – What was the lead-up to this happening?

08:30 – What accommodations have the school put in place over the years to assist Haider?

16:00 – Why was your shadow teacher so upset and unable to handle the situation, what was her feedback?

17:00 – Shadow Teachers often feel powerless and disrespected.

18:00 – When children on the spectrum are triggered repeatedly they go into fight or flight mode.

19:00 – I felt terrible for shouting at him when we got home and I wasn’t cross with him I was fearful for his future.

24:00 – I did so much for the school, volunteering, raising money organizing events

25:00 – Ambushed during the meeting with a long list of situations that I had no heads up on.

28:00 – Where is the school's accountability for this situation. With a child who has been at the school for a number of years, who is still being put into situations that trigger his behaviours that they could easily have avoided.

29:00 – I feel like I’m on trial every time I have a meeting at school.

31:00 – He has been continually excluded from opportunities at school because the teachers assume a situation will happen, even if there has been no history of such behaviour. Neurotypical children at the school get into worse situations but somehow are not subject to the same scrutiny.

33:00 – How do you feel now about the situation and the future?

34:00 – How is Haider now and what have you told him about the situation?

46:00 – There are excellent laws within education in Qatar in favour of SEN, however, they only extend to local schools. Private schools are able to continue to take extensive fees and have no accountability for the neurodiverse children they are paid to educate. Unfortunately, this particular school has taken full advantage of this.

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To learn more about navigating the school process, watch Learn Autism’s video: Finding the Right School