A child with diabetes changes school after being discriminated against
The mother denounces that the school prohibited Mark from going to excursions and did not allow him to take the glucometer to the center
Mark's life, who is now nine years old, changed when he was diagnosed with type I diabetes in 2005. He had to learn to live with his illness, to perform the blood glucose analysis - Glycemia - and to administer insulin.His environment also needed to adapt to the new situation, but problems arose at school.His mother, Montserrat Cueto, affirms that Mark suffered "discrimination" by the management team and many of the professors of his former school, English Academy Santa Claus, a private center in Barcelona to which the child went until the middle of the last year.The school prohibited Mark from bringing the glucometer to class, so that blood glucose could not be controlled, they did not allow him to participate in any excursion, they even summoned the mother to tell him that "another school would convey, another school, explains Cueto.
The director of the center, Arola Bofill, neither confirms or denies these accusations."We are not going to enter controversies, but we always gave adequate treatment to the child, there was positive discrimination," says Bofill.Instead, he acknowledges that Montserrat Cueto was hinted to change his school son "for not being able to meet his demands."Montserrat Cueto asked to follow the recommendations of the Protocol of the Department of Education and Salut on Diabetes at school.The protocol says that no child can never be excluded from the activities organized by the center, unless the responsible doctor indicates it.Mark's endocrinologist wrote a letter to school ensuring that he could participate in school outings.The education and salut protocol also indicates that an agreed solution between the family and the school must be found so that an adult controls blood glucose and manages insulin to the minor in the event that it is not autonomous - it does not necessarily be the teacher, but personnel of the nearest cap or a monitor.If the child does not need help with insulin, an adult should supervise him."Mark was autonomous since the age of five, but it was useless, because we were forbidden to enter the glucometer in class," Cueto explains.Mark even remembers that, one day he took the device in his backpack, a teacher punished him.
During the first months of the disease the endocrinologist told Mark that insulin should be administered before and after class."But some very high glycemias came out, we couldn't wait so long between each shot."When, last year, the child needed insulin before food, there was no agreement."I only asked someone to supervise him when he administered the medication, but the director said that he had phobia to the needles," adds Cueto.The final solution was to change Mark school.The letters of the lawyer of the Diabètics de Catalunya to the center, nor the medical certificates, nor the visits of Cueto to the College, nor the interviews with the education inspectors.Now Mark studies at another school where he has not had any problem.
The case of this child is extreme, but it is an example of the difficulties that diabetic children can find, and with other diseases, in school.Montserrat's efforts so that the teachers of the English Academy Santa Claus understand their son's illness and help his normal schooling were in vain, but he hopes that his complaint does not fall in a broken bag."The only thing I want to explain this is that no other child feels marginalized by having diabetes," he says.Do not claim favoritisms, but sensitivity for health problems in school to take care.
The protocol on theDiabetes at the Education and Salut School is only a recommendation and there is a legal vacuum about who has to manage medicines to children during school hours."Normally the problems are solved when teachers are informed," explains àngels Lladó, of the Diabètics Association.
fails attention to diabetic students in schools
Fortunately, situations like Mark are not common, but there are many problems in school regarding diabetic children."On paper everything is very easy, but the application of the Education and Salut protocol is not well resolved," says àngels Lladó, spokesman for the Diabètics Association of Catalonia.Not being able to participate in the excursions, not allow to bring glucagon to school to treat the diabetic coma or not to feed the child as many times as he needs - when there are decreases of sugar they have to take juices or cookies - are some of the cases they have registered inThe Association of Diabètics.Lladó explains that these difficulties are usually overcome when conscience and informs teachers.It shows that the diabetes protocol needs to improve is the meeting that will take place in Barcelona on November 18 between Salut, Educació, Social Acció, the Consell Assessor on the diabetis and the Association of Diabètics to address the issue.
Among the issues to solve are who has to administer insulin to the minor if he cannot do it himself, or who has to supervise him if the child is already self -sufficient.In Catalonia there are about 300,000 diabetics, 10% of which are administered insulin.Of these, 5% (about 1,500) are children.
