DR RADICA MAHASE

“My son, Joshua, is afraid to start school again in September. He is anxious and whenever we are preparing for school, for example when we had to cover his books, he gets panic attacks. He begs us to keep him at home.

"He was diagnosed with autism when he was five years old and we worked with him and he got through SEA.

"When he started secondary school, classes were online and he struggled, but we got a tutor to work with him and he managed to keep up with the class. Up to that point he loved school.

"He went out last term when schools reopened physically and all the nightmares started then. He was bullied for the entire term. He's in an all-boys' school and he said the other boys would constantly heckle him.

"He was mostly non-verbal, but years of speech therapy and constant work has helped him, but he speaks slowly, as he takes time to form his words. The first day he went to school and the teacher asked the boys to stand up and say something about themselves, he said the entire class started laughing when he spoke. The form teacher said they could not do that in class, so the boys would wait for break and lunchtime to mock him and laugh at him. They called him names and told him that he shouldn’t ever leave the house because he’s so weird.

"He said a group of the very popular boys told him that he should just kill himself rather than waste everyone’s time.

"That day he came home and cried for hours. He begged us to keep him home then.

"We went into the school and had meetings with the principal, his teachers and the guidance counsellor.

"Some of the teachers were understanding and said they will speak to the boys but one or two said that once it happened out of class, they couldn’t do anything about it. The guidance counsellor is only in school once a week and she talks to him, but he isn’t the problem, the problem is the bullies. The bullying never stopped.

"When the other students bully my autistic son, he becomes very withdrawn and sometimes stop speaking for a couple of days. He becomes depressed and he keeps asking why they don’t like him and why are they so mean to him.

[caption id="attachment_972094" align="alignnone" width="857"] Encouraging social interaction out of the classroom can help foster positive relationships.
- Photo Courtesy Support Autism T&T[/caption]

"He worked hard to earn his spot in this school and it is very unfair that he is treated this way.”

Bullying has become more prevalent in schools in TT. Children on the autism spectrum and those with other special needs or disabilities are often a target for bullies because they are seen as different –different is also interpreted as "weird."

Maia Szalavitz, neuroscience journalist, noted, “Many people with autism have trouble recognising social cues, which makes them awkward around others. They also often engage in repetitive behaviours and tend to be hypersensitive to environmental stimuli, all of which makes