So my Fae is – as I guess a lot of such children are – entitled to transport, supplied by the council, to and from school. This is because she requires extra support, as she has a tendency to Houdini herself out of any harness or seatbelt; has no sense of danger; and can be a bit of a nightmare if she puts her mind to it.
So, over the summer we received our letter informing us of such things, because the school our child is going to attend seems incredibly competent and orgisned it for us. We dutifully filled in our part of the paperwork, sent it back, and all seemed fine and dandy. That was until last week, when a strange man with no identification knocked on our door.
Waving a list of children’s names and addresses at us, he gruffly enquired if this one was ours. Taken aback by this sudden intrusion, it took me a moment to regain my wits and ask him (a) Who the hell he thought he was and (b) Why did he have my daughter’s details?
Speaking as though I was an idiot for not knowing, he blithely said he was the driver for school transport. He did not offer a name, nor variation of this. He told me he would be picking her up on Monday at 8am. When I informed him that she didn’t start school until Friday, and even then we would not be starting her on transport until later, as she was autistic and would find this too much – something we had arranged with both transport and the school – he scoffed, made a circling gesture with his hand next to his head and said in a knowing tone “Oh a bit like that is she?”.
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….
He was lucky I was too shocked to recover fast enough to do anything but shut the door. Needless to say, my daughter is not going on transport and we have lodged a complaint. This is not acceptable. No child should be subjected to such an attitude, and no parent should feel the need to defend their child against such ignorance. The failure to keep confidential information safe is illegal; the failure to react courteously regarding a child’s needs is a strike against child protection and the disabilities act.
The scoffing refusal to introduce oneself when arriving unannounced at a stranger’s house is a failure of common manners. This man has no business being anywhere near children, vulnerable or otherwise.
As I type the council has not responded, I will keep you informed should they do.
So on the 29th of September I got a response! but not from the transport but from ACT. Act is a different department in the council set up to help parents with children with disabilities. I wasn’t reassured when I sent them the same email that the automated response said they would get back to me by January 2022 but I felt I had nothing to lose. THey apologised for the driver and asked for his name (missing I sense the bit where I said he did not intriduce himself) and giving me a form to fill in for expenses. Not really promising but still I filled in the form reiterated everything I knew about the driver – pointing out a bit of basic detection the thier part would identify him and sent it back.
I guess it will be another few weeks before anythign else happens.
Raising the Modern Fae 