In The News

I have just registered on this forum and wanted to post my son's story.

Here is an article printed in the Liverpool Echo about some of the things that happened to my son.
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‘Stop being so silly’ wrist break boy told
May 13 2008 by Ben Turner, Liverpool Echo

‘Stop being so silly’ wrist break boy told

A FAMILY claim an autistic boy suffered a three-year campaign of bullying and intimidation at the hands of staff and pupils.

Lynne Ackers and her husband Peter have pulled 16-year-old son Sam out of Southport’s Peterhouse School, saying his experiences had a devastating impact.

She claims he was hit by other youngsters and taunted over the internet, and she compiled a dossier of alleged incidents involving staff.

Autism Initiatives, the company which runs the 55-pupil school for children with autism, today said it has now revised its policies and guidelines.

It has also asked Sefton council to carry out an independent review into the case.

Mrs Ackers said bullies hijacked an online game, threatening Sam with the words: “I will come to school and slaughter you.”

In the dossier she sent to the school, she claimed incidents involving staff included:

Sam being told to “stop pulling faces”, despite suffering from facial tics due to Tourettes.

A teacher sarcastically telling his classmates to “give Sam a round of applause for deciding to come to school today” on his return after two weeks off with stress due to bullying.

Being told “stop being so silly” by a teacher when writhing in pain after breaking his wrist in an accident.

Kept in a closed “quiet room” for 30 minutes by a teacher as punishment for being moody about the type of trifle on offer at a mealtime.

Despite being intellectually able, Sam’s condition means he needs round-the-clock care and is unable to do simple things like crossing a road.

Mrs Ackers said: “On each occasion, we were told the bullying would stop, but nothing ever changed. This has been devastating for all of us.”

School principal Graham Birtwell said there was “absolutely no foundation” to Mrs Ackers and her husband Peter’s complaints.

But in a letter to Mrs Ackers, Autism Initiatives national director Andrew Grainger said: “I feel that from the information you have kindly supplied to us and our discussion with the principal, we acknowledge the bullying Sam has experienced and the profound effect this has had on him.”

He added: “We further acknowledge staff approaches have not at all times been informed by good autism practice” and he apologised to Mrs Ackers.

Asked to address specific allegations relating to teachers, Mr Grainger told the ECHO: “There is a perspective issue which applies to these incidents, as you have to bear in mind the pupil in question has autism spectrum disorder.”

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Last edited by pixie on Thu Nov 06, 2008 6:46 pm; edited 1 time in total

I would like too thankyou for your post, i am sorry to hear about the ordeal that you, your son and your family had too go through due to bullying in school. At a autistic school you would expect there to be specialist staff who are there to fulfill the needs of the children and prevent problems such as bullying. In this case it seems that the school is unable to provide or not willing to give you the support and help that your son needs. The fact that the school allowed over children too mock and bully your child and in a way allowed themselves to mock your child by ignoring his needs is disgusting. Any school should have policies against bullying and in this case it seems like they have completely ignored these policies. I am 16 and was in year 11 so i have just left school and at the school where i was at there were policies against bullying that had to be followed.
thankyou once again for your post. i hope to hear from you in the future.
Admin

Thanks for reading my post admin.

My son is a lot happier now he's had 6 months to recover.

He will be starting at college in September so we hope he will have a better time there and move forward onto better things.

I assume you will also be going onto college or another form of higher education.

I wish you all the very best for your future education.

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A little update.

My son started at college and is very happy there so far.

I hope things are working out for you too.

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i hope everything goes ok for you and your son. thankyou for the update. regards admin