Training ‘would cut bullying of autistic pupils’

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Training `would cut bullying of autistic pupils'

4:44pm Thursday 23rd October 2008

PARENTS of autistic children have called for more teacher training to

counteract bullying, abuse and exclusion in schools.

Recent figures suggest that 40 per cent of children with autism have

been bullied at school and one-in-five get excluded due the lack of

appropriate special needs support, experts claim.

Pre-school manager Kay Whiddon of The Drive in Ilford, said her 14-

year-old son Jake, now at Beal High School in Woodford Bridge Road,

suffered psychological abuse at the hands of a primary school

teacher.

The-mother-of-two said: " He is mentally scarred for life. This one

teacher used to call him evil and wicked, steal his special autism

toys and hide them in the bin and make him sit in a small room by

himself.

" The other kids in his class would look after him and complain to

their parents about how cruelly he was treated.

" It took me a long time to find out and I've never had an apology

from the school despite being told by the headteacher that everybody

knew what was happening.

" Even now he refuses to let me drive anywhere near the school because

of all his bad memories. "

Eoin Mason, from Barkingside, was lucky enough to receive help at

Canon Palmer Catholic High School in Aldborough Road, Ilford but

still found it hard to adapt.

He said: " I had trouble being able to understand other people and to

get other people to understand me.

" After GCSE some of the changes are at a drop of a hat and you are

told to be grown up right away which I found difficult as an autistic

person.

" I was very lucky in the support I had. There was one guy that used

to pick on me just because I was different and would use autism as an

offensive word.

" One time I got into a fight with him and was lucky not to be

suspended. If it wasn't for the special help I received I don't think

I would have even made it to sixth form college let alone

university. "

Thanks to the help he received, Eoin is currently thriving in his

second year studying journalism at the University of Creative Arts in

Farnham, Surrey.

The figures on bullying and exclusion were revealed by the Government

after a Parliamentary question from Ilford North MP Lee .

He is a patron of the South Woodford-based UK Autism Foundation which

is calling for bullying on the grounds of disability to be taken more

seriously.

Chairman Ivan Corea said: " Children with autism need one-to-one

support in classrooms in a mainstream primary/secondary school

setting for example. "