Police have said staff will not face action over abuse of autistic children shown in videos leaked to the BBC.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/22497296

Summary

CCTV footage from Whitefield School in London shows autistic children being abused in padded “calming rooms” between 2014-2017, including being shoved, restrained, left in distress, or forced to sit in vomit.

Police investigated but brought no charges, leaving families to cope with trauma. Over 40 children were affected, with some developing PTSD or epilepsy.

Safeguarding investigations revealed six staff members abused students, but they weren’t referred for banning. Parents accuse authorities of a cover-up, while calls grow for stricter regulation of seclusion practices in special schools across the UK.

    • rubikcuber@feddit.ukEnglish
      2·
      15 days ago

      Apparently the video was discovered by new managers after the investigation was halted. Which suggests perhaps a less than thorough investigation.

  • Uranium 🟩@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
    6·
    15 days ago

    Jesus H. Christ, I immediately thought oh it’s not going to be as bad as it sounds, the. The video does genuinely show it being as bad and worse than it sounds.

    I’m autistic, when I get particularly distressed, I’ll end up impulsively hitting my head against walls or with my fist. Generally that behaviour is worse when left alone after getting into that state to begin with. By leaving these kids to actively self harm by isolating them, likely has worsened their situations, and probably has caused the epilepsy in the one child to become apparent.

    My partner is a teaching assistant at a mainstream school which takes on a huge number of SEN children, mostly autistic, about 5 with down syndrome, and recently a lot who were fostered. They would never in a million years think that anything like what’s shown in the video is acceptable, it’s genuinely heartbreaking that this has occured, let alone that noone is being held accountable for this abuse.

    There’s got to be so many better ways of helping these kids when they’re distressed instead of just throwing them into what is effectively a padded cell.

  • Flocklesscrow@lemm.eeEnglish
    5·
    15 days ago

    Only fair to lock the teacher in a room with the parents for the same duration. See how much calmer they come out.

    The Metropolitan Police (Met) in London accounts for about 25% of the total police budget for England and Wales, with a budget of £1.148bn. Which has doubled since Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, took office.