The Bombay High Court (File Photo) The Bombay High Court (File Photo)

In 2012, the father of a seven-year-old autistic child had moved the Bombay High Court after his son was expelled from his school. Five years later, parents of another child have moved the HC against a school for detaining their son, suffering from autism, in Class IX and not allowing them to see his final report card.

In 2012, the expulsion of the child had become talk of the town, and activists and educationists had come down heavily on the school management and the state education department.

The school, well known in the western suburbs, had removed the child citing the reason that he was not fitting into the classroom environment and was demanding constant attention thus disturbing the other children. In December 2012, the HC directed the school to take the child back and appoint a shadow teacher.

The boy is now in Class VII of the same school. “We had to approach court after the school expelled our son. My son continues to study in the same school. He is doing great and the school too is being very cooperative,” said the boy’s mother.

In the recent case, the parents of a 16-year-old student of an ICSE school in Juhu had written to education department and moved the Maha-rashtra State Commission for Protection of Child Rights after the child was forced to either repeat the year or leave school. The Commission had closed the case on September 27, with an instruction to the school to admit the boy to Class X with the help of a shadow teacher. However, the copy of the order was not given to the parents, prompting them to file a petition in the HC.

“My son is out of school since the beginning of the academic year. The school will not admit him to Class X. We moved the High Court last week. The court has directed the child rights commission to give us a copy of the order within two weeks,” said the mother of the student.

The parents alleged that the school did not support them and the boy was never allowed into the lab. “Kids with special needs require extra help, which the school has not been giving… We have followed the 2012 case where the seven-year-old was expelled. It’s sad schools don’t want to accept inclusive education.”

While the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment (MSJE) runs separate schools for children with special needs, the Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) promotes an inclusive education model where such children study in regular classrooms.

In 2012, a committee was appointed by the Maharashtra State Commission for Protection of Child Rights to assess the progress of the seven-year-old boy for a month. Dr Samir Dalwai, a behavioural/ developmental paediatrician, was asked to asses the case to set a precedent for the rights of autistic children. Dalwai said such cases are rampant but few are reported or get addressed.

Dalwai said the state government is not doing enough to address this issue. “Schools expelling autistic children, or children with special needs not getting admission, is rampant… In 2012, I had submitted my report to the High Court based on which the option of appointing a shadow teacher for the seven-year-old was allowed. The kid was taken back by the school. However, even after my report, the state government has not taken cognisance of the situation. I will also blame parents who are not getting regular therapy for their kids, which makes the case even worse,” he added.

Many schools say they are helpless and cannot offer facilities required for children with special needs. “For most schools, this kind of an exercise is practically impossible because of the number of students and lack of resources. Some schools don’t have a full-time counsellor. The focus should be on making parents aware to get their wards tested. Schools can focus on providing remedial care. It is difficult to address such issues,” said principal of the school in Juhu, on the condition of anonymity.

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