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Dear All, The Disabled People's Direct Action Network (DAN) has been contacted by the below family. If you can provide them with any support, advice or wish to help with their complaint, please contact them directly using the details at the end of their message (below).. Many thanks, Yours in solidarity, Mike Higgins (DANMAIL Co-Moderator) ************************************************* From: "Cheryl Long" <[log in to unmask]> Sent: Friday, July 11, 2008 3:35 PM Subject: Disability Discrimination - (Mr Higgins, we have slightly revised this document and started forwarding it) We are the parents of a 10 year old disabled girl. Our daughter has spina bifida. She has attended Christ Church School since her reception year, and has attended the Junior School for three years. She is now in Year 5. Recently at school we have encountered some problems with her care. We exercised our right to use the complaints procedure the school have in place. We also used the complaints procedure the local LEA (South Gloucestershire) have. On the 15th May, the Chair of Governors, Mr Bill Robbins, sent us a letter telling us that we were banned from entering the school. He gave us no reason why the ban was put in place. There were no time limits given and we were not given the right to defend ourselves. We took legal advice on this and were told that this action, by the way that it had been carried out, is illegal. We have repeatedly asked Mr Robbins for further information. None has been given. We contacted the LEA asking them to investigate. The ban has still to be lifted. Neither have we received an apology. We can assure you that we have never acted in a way that could justify a ban being imposed upon us. On Wednesday 9th July, an employee of the LEA telephoned us to say that Mr Wilkinson, Headmaster at Christ Church School, has written to the LEA to say that the school can no longer accommodate her. The LEA were unable to give the reasons Mr Wilkinson has given for this decision, even though her care plan remains mainly unchanged. Our daughter may now have to complete her final year of primary education at a different school. Understandably, she is extremely upset about this. She has many friends at Christ Church school and was looking forward to Year 6 there. We feel the actions of Mr Wilkinson and his governing body are discriminatory as this action could not be used against an able bodied pupil. We also feel that they have used this action as a way of punishing us, irrespective of the effect it is having on our daughter. The reason for this e-mail is to make people aware of the power a schools governing body has and also to ask if there might be anyone who would be able to help or advise us on a course of action. If you can help or would just like to express your opinion on the above, please e-mail us at [log in to unmask] Alternatively you may wish to give your opinions to the school directly at [log in to unmask] or the Chair of Governors, Mr Bill Robbins at [log in to unmask] If you do contact the school or governor could you please copy us in. You could also help by forwarding this e-mail to as many people as possible to help raise awareness of discrimination against disabled people. Andrew and Cheryl Long ________________End of message________________ This Disability-Research Discussion list is managed by the Centre for Disability Studies at the University of Leeds (www.leeds.ac.uk/disability-studies). Enquiries about list administration should be sent to [log in to unmask] Archives and tools are located at: www.jiscmail.ac.uk/lists/disability-research.html You can VIEW, POST, JOIN and LEAVE the list by logging in to this web page.