You Won’t Believe What School Staff Did To An Autistic 9-Year-Old Girl

An autistic girl’s dad has told of his shock after discovering disturbing pictures of his 9-year-old daughter shut behind a childproof gate, crying her eyes out and rolling on the floor in a file at her former school.

According to DailyMail, Alan Evans removed daughter Jasmine, now 11, from Tregolls School in Truro, Cornwall two years ago amid concerns about how staff were treating her.

He said: ‘I saw the photographs and found them incredibly upsetting. She is behind a childproof gate, crying and on the floor in her underpants. I think they should have been helping her instead of photographing her and as a result they’ve failed in their duty of care.’

He believes the school was compiling some kind of file of evidence in a bid to show she was difficult to manage.

He added: ‘It was horrific. In the whole file there was no evidence of her being educated. It was all evidence gathering against her. I have no idea why she was locked behind the gate. I don’t know whether it was meant to be punishment or not. Just prior to that she was pictured on the floor in her knickers. It seems all they have done was take photos of a broken-hearted child. I now know she is never going back to school again. Life is difficult for her and has been made doubly so. I don’t think people realise stuff like this still goes on. I thought this sort of thing ended years ago.’

Jasmine suffers from autism which means she has trouble speaking and has behavioural problems.

After finding them, Mr Evans instantly removed Jasmine from the school and now educates her at home because the experience has left her too scared to re-join a classroom environment.

Mr Evans and his wife Janet, 42, are angry at local authorities and have accused them of turning a blind eye to the shocking photos.

Jasmine was excluded for hurting a staff member just before Christmas in 2012, but while her parents acknowledged she has behavioural issues, they believe staff at the school still let her down.

Her father said: ‘Nobody will investigate this and I want to know why. I have approached the educational authorities and social services, neither of whom want to know.’

The 51-year-old said the burden of tutoring his daughter at their home in Lanner, Cornwall, is ‘huge’ and the family are suffering as a result.

He said: ‘It’s had a massive effect on our lives and as Jasmine is non-verbal, she struggles to express herself. She has no friends and no social life outlet so we have to constantly try to keep her amused. It’s costing us an arm and a leg and we are really hitting a brick wall but despite this she’s actually doing better educationally since she was taken out of school.’

A spokesperson from the National Autistic Society said: ‘Unfortunately, far too many children with autism, like Jasmine, don’t get the education they need. Autism is a spectrum condition so, while all children and young people with the lifelong disability share certain difficulties around social communication and interaction, it affects them in different ways.  Autism can have a profound effect on children and young people, as well as their families, but the right support at school can make a huge difference and help them to reach their full potential.’