Every Child Matters - Children with Diabetes

♦Jamie, aged 9, at junior school; the teacher would not tell Jamie whenit was time for a snack (he was on an old insulin regiment at the time), did notallow him to wear a watch with an alarm, so I provided a clock for theclassroom wall. A few months later, same problem, the batteries had run outand the teacher had thrown the clock out.Same teacher; half the school went to a community hall in town for a townwide music festival. Jamie’s teacher, who refused to read the school care planbecause she ‘knew all about diabetes”, her old uncle had had it, forgot to takethe lucozade with them. Jamie asked to eat his snack and she toldhim ‘no’. As his class was coming off the stage, Jamie collapsed unconsciousin a serious hypo. The teacher had also forgotten my emergency contactnumber. Jamie did not come round, so she drove back to the school 3 milesaway, got my phone number, rang me up, and when I arrived, Jamie wasunconscious and they were trying to feed him chocolate and sugar free squashwith undissolved sugar cubes in!!When Jamie returned to school, everyone asked how he was, told him what helooked like when he collapsed, Jamie was devastated (he’s a shy boy) and fromthen until he got his pump, apart from being taken to school, refused to leavethe house/garden and became withdrawn at school. The teacher mentionedhe’d lost his memory, and had relearn the multiplication tables!I complained to the head of school governors, the teacher got the message.On MDI, Jamie had to do his lunchtime injection in the busy dining hall infront of everyone there, the girls especially used to comment or make a fuss.In secondary school, Jamie has not been allowed to go on any schoolresidential trip, most school day trips, including a geography field trip thatwas part of the curriculum (along with another boy with diabetes) and theDuke of Edinburgh Award. When threatened with using the Disabilitydiscrimination Act, and having consulted an educational solicitor, and offeringto go with them on the trip (I am a children’s nurse) they cancelled the trip,firstly the thought the trip was ‘oversubscibed’, subsequently, they said it was‘undersubsribed’.Jamie was put in the bottom GCSE geography group, as part of the assessmentfor the group, which was done on performance of the field trip that he was notallowed to attend, therefore he had not done the required work! Doublepunishment. (Yet in the exam he came 3 rd in the year).There are many subtle ways your child is discriminated against at school forhaving diabetes; bags have to be left outside dining room, outside library etc,Jamie's bags have been stolen on several occasions, his blood meter stolen,lunch box stolen, lucozade bottle opened in his bag and its gone over his bloodglucose meter and books. There is now a new headmaster at the school, and hehas allowed children with diabetes to take their bags with them.This shows sometimes it only requires small things to be done, to make life atschool better. The difference to the child in having staff that will listen andbend rules is also a quality of life issue; before this head we felt as if some ofthe teachers were bullies. This in turn leads to a child becoming disaffectedwith the school. Once this happens, it is hard to alter.38