Aspies For Freedom

THE family of an autistic schoolboy is to receive financial compensation because Haringey Council denied him much-needed extra schooling.

Haringey Council failed to cope with the needs of eight-year-old Ruari McInerney, of Coppetts Road, an investigation by the Local Government Ombudsman found.

Ruari suffers from Asperger's disorder, an autistic condition that triggers tantrums, fighting and lack of concentration.

The ombudsman ruled the Coppetts Wood primary school pupil received only a quarter of schooling ordered by doctors.

His mother, Maria, claims her son's life was made a nightmare and his education stunted because of a catalogue of failures.

Ms McInerney said: "He needs to be supervised - for instance at lunchtime - because if there is any chance element he cannot cope.

"He does not know what is expected of him in social situations and gets into fights and becomes upset. Most of the time he is being left alone. Because of this he is in the very early stages of reading and writing despite being quite old.

"He knows what is expected in school but finds it hard to do."

Because Ruari goes to school in Barnet and the family lives in Haringey, council education bosses refused to send helpers.

Ombudsman Mike Biebet found that despite funds being available, Ruari received little support from Haringey Council.

Instead of a daily programme of occupational therapy he received none for five months. He was also denied weekly speech and language therapy for eight months.

Mr Biebet said: "It was the council's responsibility to oversee and ensure provision and it does not appear to have done so."

The family will be compensated financially for the two-year battle. The council has been ordered to sort out its record-keeping, communicate better with parents, establish a working agreement with primary care providers and revise provisions regarding out-of-borough schools.

The case comes as a survey by support group Haringey Autism found one-quarter of parents with autistic children in the borough had brought cases against Haringey and won.

It found children were being excluded from mainstream school, mishandled, unhappy or forced to leave school.

Some 3.2 per cent of Haringey's pupils have statements of special educational needs requiring attention. Of these, 68 per cent attend mainstream schools and eight per cent go to out-of-borough schools.

Ms McInerney said: "I am only a parent, I am not a health professional. I cannot fight the whole time."
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The stereotypes get worse every day.   :evil:

My aspie son is one of the calmest, most even-tempered boys you'll ever meet, and so is my aspie brother.

It is wrong to stereotype people, but my daughter is more like Ruari than your son, Bonnie.  She has been sent home from school several times because of her behavior.  I'm glad Ruari's parents won.

I have two Aspie brothers (maybe three) and one sister who I believe is either high functioning Kanner's or very autistic Aspie.

One of my brothers is calm, highly intelligent (possibly genius), deep thinker, usually very even tempered (maybe placid). Mind you, if somebody bugs him long enough, he'll eventually (and it takes a long time for him to get that way) lose his temper so completely that he has a meltdown and occasionally (in his younger years, he is 53 now) hit somebody too hard. He is very strong and didn't know his own strength as a kid.

The other one is cruel, sadistic, average intelligence, short tempered, cold and generally hard to live with (he is 51 now, and hasn't changed). My sister is in her ways more like a cute (and rather annoying, since she is 48) ten-year-old (with average intelligence, but not a shred of common sense), but the most harmless person you'd want to meet.

My older brother has two kids, and his son (13), who I KNOW is an Aspie (even if nobody wants to admit it) is the sweetest kid I know, and my favourite nephew (the others don't know  :wink: ). Of course, two of my three NT brothers think him rather annoying, since he won't talk about anything but his special interests. Maybe that's why I like him so much, he is just like me (and he has red hair, too).

My youngest brother and his wife live in Harringey.

It's sad that the kids mentioned in the above article were not given the help and support that could reasonably have been expected. I mean, how hard would it have been for the school to organise a "buddy" for each of the autistic children - either a child in their class or a bit older?

The other child could have helped them in navigating the social maze of school.

However, I think it would also require a change in school culture as the headmaster/headmistress sets the tone for the whole school. If they are supportive of helping autistic children settle well in school and to have no tolerance of bullying, there would be fewer claims against a school for discrimination.