Mother of youth continues sit-in at school

THE mother of a 19-year-old profoundly handicapped youth spent a second day "squatting" in a classroom after the Department of…

THE mother of a 19-year-old profoundly handicapped youth spent a second day "squatting" in a classroom after the Department of Education said it wanted him to transfer to a vocational training course.

Mrs Pat O'Hanlon, of The Lough, Cork city, said that because there were now seven in the class which legally should have a ratio of six pupils per teacher, her son Ryan was not being included in the teaching at St Paul's School in Cork.

"He does not understand why this is so, especially since he has had such a terrific experience of the class for the past three years. He was upset when he returned home and very dispirited but I still hope the Department of Education will find a place for him in the special classes," she said.

The Department said it had provided a teaching instructor for Ryan and another youth in the vocational training centre run by COPE, the voluntary organisation that also runs the special school the youth has attended.

READ MORE

A spokesman pointed out that the first step would be a 10-week assessment programme, but he did not know what course would be put in place for the youths after that.

The centre is funded by the Department of Health, while the Department of Education contributes towards the cost of teachers.

Mrs O'Hanlon wants her son to remain the responsibility solely of the Department of Education and to follow the specially devised programme that had benefited him since it was set up when he was 15.

She has accused the Department of trying to off-load handicapped people on to other Departments as quickly as possible.

There are 55 special classes established on the lines laid down in a High Court judgment issued four years ago following an action taken by another Cork mother claiming her profoundly handicapped child had a right to education.

These classes have 330 pupils in total, and the Cork Association, for Profoundly Handicapped said there are 3,000 young people in the State who need these facilities.

Mrs O'Hanlon said the Department was trying to pretend that the age of the handicapped person was a factor in their education, and now that her son was 18, which for normal children was the school-leaving age, the Department wanted to move him on.

The chief executive of COPE Foundation, Mr Jerry Buttimer, said it was being caught in the middle of the dispute while it provided whatever services the State helped to fund.

"They have taken the attitude that it is time he moved into another kind of education. It might not be the same programme as he has had in the school but it might have the same beneficial effects," he said.