May 12, 2021,Scotland, Press and Journal: ‘Drowning in hurt’: Caithness mum’s desperate struggle to get an education for her autistic son https://www.pressandjournal.co.uk/fp/news/highlands/3130681/drowning-in-hurt-caithness-mums-desperate-struggle-to-get-an-education-for-her-autistic-son
A Caithness mum says her autistic son has been “denied his right to an education” after being excluded from school for two years.
Sofia Dos Santos and her husband Jo have been battling to maintain 15-year-old Danny’s schooling after he was excluded from Wick High School following an altercation on a bus with another child.…
Mrs Dos Santos said: “Danny has always said he wants an education and we have tried and tried to get the school to take him back, even with several letters from the psychologist, where it states the mental impacts of such exclusion is having on Danny and the whole family.
“What the school and the council has done to Danny by refusing to accept him in school is not only discriminatory but also illegal.”
‘We came to Caithness for a quieter life’
Mrs Dos Santos said the family chose to come to Caithness for a quieter life following racial abuse they suffered in England.
The family’s efforts to get Danny back into school have involved numerous meetings, including a recent online mediation….
Dr Govenden writes: “To keep him away from education when he has an absolute right to be educated, and to access education, is deeply unfair and discriminates against him as a disabled child with a diagnosis of ASD….
Mrs Dos Santos said the family has been left isolated and unsupported, resulting in her having a mental breakdown last year.
“I just felt like crying all the time, I felt I was drowning in hurt.
“Seeing my son upset and worried that he would not have a future, having to have to go for a drive in the middle of the night, just so he could calm down.
“They have no idea, of all that they are putting us through….
“It’s inhumane.”
