A Shotts mum claims education bosses are failing her young son and is pleading for them to place him in school for children with additional support needs.
Louise Brown, 34, says her six-year-old son Harly – who has undergone diagnosis for pathological demand avoidance (PDA), an autism spectrum disorder, is being let down by North Lanarkshire Council’s education department and isn’t getting the education he deserves.
Individuals with a PDA profile avoid everyday demands to an extreme extent, and use avoidance strategies and age-inappropriate behaviour.
Harly is currently in his second stint of P1 at St Patrick’s Primary but Louise, a mum-of-four, says despite teachers’ best efforts Harly can’t cope in a mainstream school.
“He should be in P2 but is back doing P1 again this year because his learning failed last year,” said Louise.
“The staff at St Patrick’s have been brilliant and have tried everything they can, but no matter what they try it’s not working.
“He was only on a half-day timetable last year because he can’t cope with it. It was just going the same way in this second year and I kept pushing for meetings.
“The council are refusing to place him elsewhere and they have failed him. They say it’s about ‘inclusion’ but Harly is excluded in everything he does, but that‘s not the school’s fault. He doesn’t mix with other kids and is himself all the time.
“They have said they will gather more evidence but I asked, ‘Is that not what you did last year?’”
PDA has been linked to anxiety and children with the condition tend to enter flight or freeze mode when they feel threatened.
“Harly uses flight mode and has got out of the school a couple of times and teachers aren’t allowed to grab him or anything,” Louise added.
“He lashes out and has hurt a couple of the teachers, and they aren’t allowed to do any handling. They just need to sit and take it and aren’t trained for these situations.”
Harly has been getting extra one-to-one help in school since October but Louise says it’s not enough and he is missing out.
“He always has to be in control of the situation, of every single thing he does,” she continued. “To get him to learn you have to give him two options. If you give him too many options then his brain can’t cope and he can’t choose.
“I’ve had discussions with the education department and they have said they will take another look at it and see if they can arrange a space of some sort for Harly, but then they would still need to staff that place. The staff in the school aren’t qualified to deal with Harly’s needs.”
Louise admits she is at her wits’ end with the situation. She has to take Harly out of school every day at 11.30am and return with him an hour-and-a-half later to ensure he gets a break from the environment.
She said: “It’s difficult to deal with at times but he’s more settled at home because that’s his safe place. At school it’s totally different. Even when people are talking to him he can lose it and have a meltdown because he can’t stand the constant speaking.”
Louise had to give up her job doing bar work a year ago because of the situation at school.
She said: “It got to the stage I couldn’t do my job. My work were having to call someone else to see if they could come in and cover my shift, or I was having to call my mum to go down and see him.”
A council spokesperson said: “It would be inappropriate to discuss the details of this case through the media, however, we are fully aware of all the issues and are doing everything we can to provide the family with the ongoing levels of support required.”
