The mother of a seven-year-old boy who missed out on over a month of schooling because he was not provided with a learning support assistant says she is “very disappointed” at recent claims by the school.
The issue revolves around a judicial protest filed by the National Commission Persons with Disability against St Edward’s College regarding her son, a wheelchair user who is in Year 3.
In the protest, the commission accused the school of failing to start a process to appoint an LSA for the child after his previous assistant became indisposed. As a result, the boy – who has a physical disability – could not attend school for over a month, because he did not have the assistance to move around.
The commission also called on the school to make the building accessible to people with disabilities, in accordance with the law. (Since the protest was filed, the boy has returned to school and is being temporarily offered support by the LSA of other students.)
In its reply, the school said that, when the boy’s assistant became indisposed, it recommended another person but the mother refused. It added it had started the process to appoint an LSA in the beginning of May and that it made structural alternations to allow further accessibility.
When contacted, the mother – who was not involved in the protest filed by the commission – said she did not want to comment much for the sake of her son but admitted she was disappointed by the school’s reaction.
“The only thing I can do is call on the board of governors to abide by the school ethos: virtue and honour,” she said.
KNPD chairman Oliver Scicluna was more vocal.
Laws are thereto be respected and not shelved. Any educational institute must be accessible
Over these past weeks he was in constant contact with the mother, who briefed him on every effort she made to get an LSA for her son, he said.
As for the school’s claim that structural alternations had been made to the building, he said he was not aware of them and called on the school to elaborate.
He took offence at the school’s claim that it had not received guidance from the commission regarding how to make the school accessible. The commission had been in correspondence with the school since April 2014 and had even asked for plans of the building. But the school never sent the plans and ignored the e-mails, he said.
“Laws are there to be respected and not shelved. Any educational institute must be accessible. If it is not, it means no one with a disability can attend or work there,” Mr Scicluna said adding he was consulting with the commission’s lawyer to take the case against the school a step further in court.
When contacted for a reaction, a school spokesman said that structural alternations included modifications to sanitary facilities. One of the bathrooms was made accessible to wheelchair users as were shower facilities.
The school provided a specialised couch for physiotherapy, bathroom access directly from the play area and the gym and chapel were made accessible to wheelchair users.
The spokesman noted that alterations had to be made according to the planning laws on scheduled buildings.
“The college is housed in buildings from what was once the Cottonera Military Hospital in Vittoriosa, along with the parade ground adjoining St Clement’s bastions. The college does not have a copy of the plans of the building,” the spokesman pointed out.
As for the mother’s disappointment, the school spokesman said: “The college respects the mother’s position and will not comment further in this regard since the reply was addressing the KNPD’s position.”