We started the week talking about Charlie, a child from the UK with autism, who was forced to wear a yellow vest at recess, to distinguish him from the rest.
And today, again, we have to tell you another hard case of bullying a child with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) in the classrooms. His name is Santiago, he is 11 years old and lives in Chile and, As he tells in the letter he wrote to the principal of his school to denounce the situation, his religion teacher laughs at him during classes.
Her aunt has made her heartbreaking words known on social media.
"It makes everyone laugh and that makes me feel sad"
They are just some of the hard words that include the letter of Santiago and that we reproduce completely. This is its original content.
"Madam Director: I am writing to ask you to authorize me to leave the subject of religion because Professor Eduardo bothers me. He tells me that" I get excited, "he teases saying why Santiago does not live? Santiago is a commune? And does that everyone laughs and that makes me feel sad, angry and yesterday in a class I had to hide under the table because of what happened to me and my classmates laughed again and I had to escape from the room to cry. "
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Marjorie Salinas, Santiago's aunt, shared her nephew's letter on her Facebook page and denounced the case, requesting help to achieve real school inclusion:
"Dear friends and friends, I ask you, please, to share my nephew's letter, who attends a municipal school in the commune of Santiago (Chile), he is diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) and is in the PIE program, the country's special education program. "
In addition, he adds that Santiago is not receiving the needs it requires "Like being left in the resource room to finish a test with time, in which, in addition, you can never get more than a 4".
According to her account, the school only talks to her sister so that "It asks for an increase in medication or to be taken to a special school, although my nephew has no mental retardation, he is highly functional."
But for Marjorie, the straw that filled his patience, was the letter that his nephew wrote spontaneously after suffering bullying in class by the teacher:
"It broke my heart. For them it's a joke, They don't know that people with ASD don't understand jokes? I don't think it's funny. Where is the school integration? Where is the educational inclusion?"
An unfortunate case of discrimination
This is how the mayor of Santiago de Chile has described the case, where the public school where the child with ASD studies is located. Through a video posted on Twitter, Felipe Alessandri explains:
"This afternoon I learned the unfortunate, unpleasant, abusive situation that Santiago suffered in one of our 44 educational establishments. He was the victim of bullying, discrimination, an abusive situation by the religion teacher."
Today through the USSR we learn about the case of Santiago and his heartfelt letter. We are not going to leave him or his family alone pic.twitter.com/Gg2EhyteeZ
- Felipe Alessandri (@AlessandriFelip) April 10, 2019
As the mayor says in his video, we also hope that responsibilities will be cleared and that situations such as those in Santiago will not happen again. Children with autism need support and integration in the classroom, not that the educators themselves make fun of them or discriminate against them.
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