Autistic genius, 9, expelled by school
Family’s plight highlights gaps for special needs children, writes Jody O’Callaghan.
The mother of a 9-year-old autistic boy who was kicked out of school says the education system has ‘‘deserted’’ him.
Christian Cosgrove was expelled from Woodend School in North Canterbury on Tuesday for ‘‘lashing out’’.
His mother Christine believes he may have been bullied, and that his behaviour deteriorated after the school changed his routine, which included removing his ‘‘time out’’ place.
And special needs lobby groups believe there are hundreds of students like Christian who are being deprived of an education because of a lack of specialist training and government funding.
‘‘It’s a huge issue, and it’s a nationwide issue,’’ said SmileDial special needs advocate Kelly Dugan, who has been supporting the Cosgroves.
Minister of Education Chris Hipkins agreed the special needs sector had been underfunded for years. He said training teachers to cope with the demands of autistic children would be a priority.
Christian has high functioning autism and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. He was diagnosed by a psychologist as ‘‘genius’’ the day he was suspended from school.
‘‘On the same day he got suspended I was feeling elated because I got confirmation of my son’s brilliance. It’s not fair, and it’s not right,’’ Cosgrove said.
After four years and quite a few standdowns, things had been going well until a few months ago when the school began changing his routines. He was suspended on October 26, and expelled this week.
Cosgrove believed the school found excuses to expel her son, because ‘‘it’s too-hard-basket for them’’.
She said she always had to fight for external agency support. ‘‘Up until now I felt like I’ve kind of had ministry support. But as soon as he gets suspended, it’s ‘no, you’re on your own’.’’
With Christian out of school, and both parents working fulltime, they had to pay for fulltime care. She worried it might now be difficult to enrol him elsewhere.
Dugan said SmileDial had been swamped with requests for help from more than 160 families suffering similar challenges.
Many students like Christian would end up being home-schooled.
Woodend School acting principal Adrienne Simpson would not comment on individual cases, but said the school worked hard with families, agencies, experts and the Ministry on individual plans for students with specific needs.
Schools were also increasingly asking families to keep their special needs children home on ‘‘busy’’ days – a practice dubbed ‘‘Kiwi exclusions’’.
Ministry deputy secretary Katrina Casey admitted families and educators found the learning support system ‘‘hard to navigate’’, and it was being updated.
Support was available, but schools needed to ask for it. The ministry worked with schools to find alternative options for students who had been excluded.