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x Education: Mum fears for son's safety at school x
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Education Posted by sylvia on Friday, September 30, 2005 (15:25:03)

IC Croydon August 2005

By Neil Millard

A distraught mum faces sending her autistic son to a school which admits it is not secure enough to guarantee his safety.

To make matters worse, 12-year-old Mitchell McMenamin is someone who runs off and has been dodged by traffic on a main road after a previous escape.

And his mum, Carol, said if the council does not back down to her demands that he be sent to another £42,000-a-year school in Mitcham she will be keeping him at home for his own safety.

She has the support of not only one of Mitchell's previous headteachers, but the head of the unit where Croydon Council wants him to go in September.

Carol, 48, said: "I would rather have him under my feet at home than see him underneath a lorry."

In March, she was told by his previous school, Carew Manor in Wallington, that they would have to stop taking him because he needs so much attention.

Marys Wnuk, the headteacher of the autistic 'Paper Jack' unit at Bensham Manor School, in Thornton Heath, said in a letter to the council a month ago: "I am writing to confirm that we are unable to ensure Mitchell's safety under the present circumstances. We do not currently have sufficient security here, with visible exits from the classroom to the road where Mitchell could run to."

The letter adds: "Gates are currently not secure and they are generally open. The playground where all the boys go is next to the main road where gates are unlocked and easy to get out of."

Carol, of Milne Park East, New Addington, said what amounts to an empty promise in Mitchell's annual review led to a pledge to give him supervision for 10 hours a week which the council described as "generous".

She said this falls far short of the total time he would spend in school and would not guarantee his safety. The letter also makes it clear that Mitchell needs speech therapy which has not been available at Bensham Manor since January.

Alan Malarkey, director of student services, said he had no idea the letter existed and added that he would have to meet with Ms Wnuk to find out what her concerns were.

But he stood by the autistic unit's ability to provide for Mitchell, despite testimony from its own headteacher that it would not be able to cope.

And as for money, he said they had a fixed amount to spend and he did not "have any choice in this".

He said: "I don't think that's as huge an issue as is being asserted. These things do work themselves out and the outcomes aren't as dramatic as people first imagine they might be. This is a reasonably sensible package. Normally we wouldn't put in any additional support. The school would normally have to manage that. Supervision of that kind all the time is hardly ever a good idea. It doesn't give an opportunity for building confidence.

"Marys may well be categorical but I don't think it's based on sufficient evidence at this point."

Mr Malarkey said Carol, who wants a place at Eagle House School, in Mitcham, could appeal to an independent tribunal and said the claim that Mitchell had run off in the past had never been brought to their attention.

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x x Posted by sylvia on Friday, September 30, 2005 (15:25:03) (1329 reads) x x

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