The mother of a former Kingspark School pupil has shared a powerful video of her son’s injuries to raise awareness of a restraint used against disabled children in schools.
Beth Morrison’s campaign and petition on the use of restraint and seclusion in schools for children with disabilities is being examined by the Scottish Parliament.
Her son Calum’s experiences, after he came home from school with unexplained injuries in 2010, inspired her campaign.
His story, previously revealed in The Courier, has now been made into a thought-provoking video by The Challenging Behaviour Foundation.
Beth said: “We have been very clear from the start that our petition was about reducing the need for restrictive practices for the most vulnerable children in Scotland.
“Since the petition began 14 months ago now, we continue to be contacted by distraught families whose small, disabled (and very often non-verbal) children are being subjected to the use of physical interventions (restraint) by staff in schools causing injuries.
“We also continue to hear of children with special needs being isolated (seclusion) in safe spaces/chill-out rooms/reflection rooms and many of these are little more than cupboards and bare cell-like places used to contain, control and punish our children for behaviour linked to their medical conditions.
“It’s very wrong, it is against their human rights, and we want it to stop.”
Ms Morrison is pleased how well her petition has been received by the Scottish Parliament petitions committee, which has agreed “more needs to be done” on the issue and continued it into the next parliamentary session.
This means the issue will be taken up by the committee when it is reformed after the Scottish election.
After the abuse allegations, dating back to 2010, an independent consultant made a number of recommendations but found there was “no cause for concern” for pupil safety.
A police investigation is ongoing and a spokeswoman said: “Our priority throughout this investigation has been consideration of the children/young people involved.
“This has been a particularly challenging case involving very vulnerable witnesses. Police Scotland has recently sought advice and direction from the procurator fiscal in relation to some aspects of the investigation.”
Dundee City Council said it is cooperating fully with the police investigation and will make no further comment until that is completed.