By Claire Ellicott
An autistic seven-year-old pupil who became upset during a lesson was placed on her own in the school's tiny medical room by a teaching assistant.
Melanie-Rose Wichmann said she felt like a prisoner and begged in vain to be let out of the windowless space.
Her parents removed her from the school following the incident and she complained of bad dreams and anxiety attacks. Now staff have been ordered to write letters of apology after her parents took the school to a tribunal.
Judge Michael Dorsey ruled that the school had discriminated against Melanie-Rose because of her disability.
The incident happened in February last year at St John Fisher Roman Catholic Primary School in Perivale, West London. Melanie-Rose thought she would get into trouble because she had not done her homework and began crying and waving her arms.
The special educational needs and disability tribunal in central London heard that learning support assistant Carla Pearson, 42, took Melanie-Rose out of the classroom and put her in the medical room, which was 16ft by 7ft and windowless apart from a small hatch looking on to the corridor. Mrs Pearson said she held the door ajar, but Melanie-Rose denied this and said that she could not escape when she tried the door handle and her appeals to be let out were ignored.
Melanie-Rose, now eight, is classed as 'high-functioning autistic', which means her symptoms are less severe than those of other sufferers. In a statement, she said she felt she was being punished and had been locked up because she had been naughty. She said she was in the room for ten minutes, although Mrs Pearson said it was closer to five.
Judge Dorsey ruled that Mrs Pearson's actions were not an 'appropriate strategy' to deal with a distressed autistic child.
A child with autism 'should not have been left, even briefly and for the best of motives, alone in a small room from which she could not get out'.
He also recommended the school train staff in coping with autism. The tribunal accepted that Mrs Pearson, who remains in her position at the school, acted in good faith, but acknowledged that Melanie-Rose had become distressed for some time afterwards.
When Ealing Council could not find her a new school, her mother Barbara, 47, a supply teacher, was forced to leave work and home-tutor her for six months. Mrs Wichmann, whose husband Reinhold is a transport manager, said she was relieved at the outcome of the tribunal and that waiting for the decision had been an ordeal. 'I know that despite what anyone says, regardless of their disability, you don't treat children like this,' she said.
'I wanted to fight this no matter what. I wanted to fight for her and for all the other kids out there in similar situations.'
Mrs Wichmann said that Melanie-Rose had suffered continuing problems with Mrs Pearson, who had no formal qualifications in caring for autistic children. She said she twice wrote to the school in 2007 requesting a different learning support assistant and claiming that the relationship between Mrs Pearson and the girl had broken down.
In one incident in October 2007, Mrs Pearson tore up one of Melanie-Rose's certificates for good behaviour in front of her and the class, Mrs Wichmann said. On another, she locked Melanie-Rose outside the classroom during teaching time, later admitting her actions had been 'inappropriate'.
'Inappropriate': Carla Pearson is still at the school
The school denied discriminating against Melanie-Rose. Head Gillian Scannell said: 'The well-being of all our pupils is of paramount importance.
'We will of course be studying the judgment in detail to make sure we identify any lessons that can be learned.'
Source: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/arti...-naughty.html#
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