Evening Telegraph (First Edition)
Disabled girl missing school due to council taxi service confusion
A DISABLED girl has been unable to return to school after the summer brea k because of a mix-up which has meant she has not been picked up by a special council taxi service.
Harris Academy pupil Ellie Leslie has cerebral palsy and relies on a wheelchair and walking frame to move around.
The 14-year-old, who has just recently recovered from hip surgery, has been stuck at home all week.
Mum Claire has claimed she applied for the city council’s taxi service before the summer holidays, but never received a response and was asked to apply again.
Her second request was subsequently rejected. However, on her third attempt, a day before term started, she was told Ellie would be picked up and dropped off.
But Ellie’s problems have continued and, each morning, Claire has helped her get ready for school only for a driver to fail to show up.
Since speaking to the transport department on Tuesday, Claire says she has had no further contact from anyone and has been left each day wondering if a taxi is going to turn up to take Ellie to school after being told there would hopefully be a solution by Wednesday or Thursday.
“We have been getting up and getting her ready in her school clothes and have been standing at the door from 8am to see if a taxi turns up.
“Her friends have been calling her. She missed out on two tests this week, she was pretty upset about that.
“I just feel really disappointed. It’s not like she is new to the system, this is her going into S3, they knew about her.
“If they had told us this could have been a situation we could have had stuff in place during the holidays to get something sorted for her to go to a different school, but it’s the fact that they waited until the Friday before school to tell us.
“She was looking forward to going back to school to see her friends and she hasn’t been able to do that.”
Meanwhile, Claire also claims she was excluded from talks which were held behind closed doors, which could mean Ellie is made to move from the school.
The family moved to Fintry to live in a specially-adapted house, but in doing so moved out of the Harris catchment area.
She said: “She can’t move school. Ellie needs to work up to that because some of her friends with her at Harris have been with her since P1. They are used to seeing her in her frame and wheelchair.
“You can’t just put her somewhere else.
There might be kids who could make fun of her.
“Also, she doesn’t talk to people that she doesn’t really know.
“She needs time to meet the people at the school.
“She got to meet the people at Harris before she went.
“Because of her condition she has trouble retaining information.
“It took her a while to find her way around the Harris school.
“She’s been there since S1 and she’s only now starting to get round without a teacher.
“The floors are different colours so she knows by colour which floor she needs to go on.”
Claire said Ellie was offered training to be able to use bus transport. However, her parents were not confident about her using it by herself.
A council spokeswoman said: “We are continuing to discuss this with the family and are working to find a suitable solution as soon as possible.”