Gerard Melgar Barcelona
Barcelona
Updated Wednesday, January 31, 2024-10:03
'Bullying' David's last blow: "My autistic son threw himself down the stairs because three girls, laughing, incited him to do so"
'Bullying' One in three victims of bullying does not explain their problem out of fear or to avoid worrying their family
The tranquility that the small municipality of
Alella
(Barcelona) provided to the
Dubach
family , since they arrived in 2018 from Zurich (Switzerland), was definitively cut short just over two months ago.
Manar
still visibly explains nervously the phone call she received on the morning of November 22 from the management of the
Santa María del Pino
private school , which warned her that she had to pick up her daughter
Sena
, 11 years old, who was expelled.
Neither she nor
Etienne
, her husband, ever imagined that today they would be considering taking legal action against the school, for the "irregularities of the sanctioning file", and against the
Generalitat
for "dereliction of functions" and "deprivation of the right to education." » to the minor, who was not able to return to the classroom until January 15, including a change of center.
Diagnosed with a degree of
autism
(social communication disorder),
ADHD
and
dyscalculia
(a neurological condition that makes mathematical understanding difficult), Sena's behavior had raised alarm bells in May.
Nuria G.
, her private therapist, detected the existence of conflicts with two classmates at school. Some problems that were reproduced, with the beginning of the sixth year of Primary, at the end of September and in October. The family demanded the opening of the protocol against
bullying
after being alerted by
MEM
, the mother of a classmate, that the girl had received "physical and verbal attacks", information that that parent also conveyed to those responsible for the center. .
The school's team of professionals considered that the circumstances did not exist to begin this process and, a few weeks later, they complained to Manar and Etienne that Sena should be accompanied by a school night watchman to avoid new conflicts. When consulted by this newspaper, the director of Santa María del Pino,
Francesc Serra
, explains that "the situation had worsened" and that the versions of the school's professionals coincided in pointing out Sena as the cause of the problems, which mostly occurred with a professor's daughter.
Being a private center, the cost of educational support was going to fall on the family. Accompaniment by a professional outside the school during the required 20 hours meant 1,000 euros per month, a figure that exceeded by 150 euros the fee they already paid for the girl's schooling and food and which the Dubach family said they did not could assume.
Not only had the tables turned, but a bizarre journey began in which Sena was going to spend a month and a half without setting foot in the classrooms. The communication and justification of the sanction (one month, subject to extension, of deprivation of attendance at the center until the student was accompanied by the figure of a watchman during the hours established by the
Department of Pedagogical Guidance
of the school) did not reach them. in writing until November 27, five days after the day the punishment was reported by telephone. That document concluded that Sena had been the "physical, verbal and relational aggressor."
Sanction
The family's lawyer,
Laura Parra
, points out that this shows that "this file was carried out after the expulsion." Furthermore, she highlights the "absolute absence of form" in the sanctioning procedure, "lacking the
principle of contradiction
[right to confront evidence]" and "without indication of the means of
challenge
."
The lawyer also questions the work of the
Education Inspection
of the Generalitat "in the face of such a serious sanction, which should be well classified and proportional to the disapproved conduct." Parra also uses the "retortion of the
right of admission
" by establishing that the only way to attend class again was with the presence of a guard. The zone inspector considered that the protocol was well applied and the consequences were correct.
While waiting to decide whether to go to court, the family has requested the management of the
Territorial Education Services
of the Maresme-Vallès Oriental area to annul the sanctioning file both "due to the falsity of the facts on which it is based" and because "irregularities" in the process.
But the complaints before the Inspection of the Generalitat go further. The assignment of a school place in another center, requested by the family in December, "violated the right to education" of Sena, since it was not granted to him until January 9 and he could not resume the course until the 15th because that school "was not prepared" for the needs of the student.
After examining Sena two months ago, the Counseling
and Psychopedagogical Guidance Team
dependent on the department ruled that, although it was not essential, it was recommended that the girl finish the rest of the course at a school where she could continue her studies starting in September. . The place assigned by the inspector, in the
Fabra de Alella public school, without
Secondary Education
lines
, will force Sena to start ESO in another center, the third in a year.
Sources from the Department of Education indicate that they have followed Sena's case "very closely" through the Territorial Services of the area. However, neither this organization nor the Educational Inspection have wanted to make statements to this newspaper.
Other cases
Manar believes that the school did not take into account the vulnerability of her daughter, whose
neurodiversity
"causes her to react aggressively to an attack." In their complaint to the Generalitat, the family reports the existence of other similar patterns of "defencelessness" in the same center, with children with some disorder who have allegedly suffered harassment by colleagues, some of whom are also relatives of workers. .
EL MUNDO has contacted three families who denounce the school's alleged inaction. This is the case of
Fátima
and
David
, with a 13-year-old daughter who suffers from
dyslexia
and would have suffered "episodes of bullying during several years." Another family that prefers to remain anonymous explains that they decided to remove their eight-year-old daughter from Santa María del Pino in 2023, after not seeing her complaints about alleged
bullying
addressed .
Rachel
and
Xavier
report the episodes experienced by their 14-year-old daughter, with
auditory processing
and
expressive language
disorders . They also went, on more than one occasion and without success, to the educational inspection of the Generalitat.