Sunday, November 10, 2013

Does it get much worse?


Explanation below
Today, when I went to C.'s school to bring her brace and shoes, I found her in the "sports room" again, deposited on the swinging plank. 

This is the first year that this time filler, "being-in-the-sports-room", has featured in C.'s life. And a disturbing addition it is. She lies there with no distraction, no interaction and no stimulation. Her classmates occupy various other apparatuses with equal neglect.

Loathe to complain, I submerge my annoyance. I fear the risk of retaliation from the staff. 

Besides, there is such a plethora of faults with this school I couldn't begin tackle them all.

So I only point out the odd one now and then, those that are easily remedied. For example, I have, after two years, insisted that the wheelchair they have given C. be adjusted so that she sits comfortably. The physiotherapist has promised to oblige.

But this afternoon, fifty minutes after my first visit, I returned to deliver a spare pair of pants for C. Equipped with a camera this time, I intended to photograph the "sports room" scene: I expected to find a staff member sitting and eating or talking on her cell phone while the children languished. 

"Just wanted a photo of C. enjoying 'sports'", was the explanation I had prepared for any curious teachers.

But there was no need for that fib because I found the children alone in the sports room in this condition. (See the two photographs that I took.)

My daughter C. is lying on a kind of hammock, unsecured, unstrapped. The naked child on the floor appears to have fallen from the swing beside him. A third child is suspended, again without anything to keep him there, on a swing.

Tonight, still unnerved by our discovery, Hubby and I sit and ponder what to do next.

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