20 ‘special’ children expelled from school

Some 20 mentally challenged children have been dismissed from their learning centre following disputes between their parents and the school management.

KUALA LUMPUR: Some 20 “special” children have inadvertently become the innocent “victims’ of a bitter clash between their parents and the management of a learning centre here.

As a result of the dispute, the children – who suffer from various intellectual disabilities including autism, Down’s syndrome and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder – were barred from entering the Impian Autism and Learning Difficulties Institute (Impian) at Titiwangsa early yesterday morning.

The children, aged between 10 and 29, stood confused in the hot morning sun – with some even said to have gone hysterical – as their parents and management engaged in a heated argument at the gates of the Impian bungalow lot.

Witnessed by several policemen, both sides allegedly shouted at each other as they argued over various issues that had reached a boiling point since the end of last year. The 20 special students have now been officially dismissed from the centre.

The parents’ main grouse was that the school had increased the fees 100% without consultating them.

They were also upset over the new “unreasonable” rules and regulations implemented without any prior consultation.

But the school today claimed that the group of parents – who called themselves the Parent Support Group of Impian (PSGI) – have been overly aggressive in their conduct.

The management also said the new fees were necessary to keep the centre, which has been running at a loss, afloat.

Speaking to FMT, PSGI secretary Halida Abu Bakar said that the fate of the children is now uncertain after they were expelled yesterday.

‘Don’t do this to the children’

She said the children may need to find a new place or the group of parents may even try to form their own centre.

“Don’t do this to the children if you claim to care for them. This is not the way to treat them. To these arrogant people [school management], the expulsion of these children is not a big thing.

“But we’re highlighting this now because we want to teach this centre a lesson. We can’t let new students face a similar situation and suffer,” she said.

Halida said the parents are basically unhappy with three issues. One was that they were suddenly informed earlier this year that basic fees had doubled from RM250 to RM500 for juniors (12 years and below) and from RM400 to RM800 for seniors (12 till 30 plus).

“That’s a sudden 100% hike, no joke. It caught us by surprise. But we’re making noise not so much about the fee but because there was no prior notification. This only came out in the February invoice. Why couldn’t they tell us in advance?”

Halida said another issue is the sudden change of guidelines, including barring parents from going into the school with their special child.

“We don’t mind changes but you have to justify them. At least have the courtesy to inform us,” she said.

Halida added that another issue was the lack of new programmes for each student this year, a standard requirement during previous years.

She said PSGI had repeatedly asked the school management to have an open dialogue with the parents but to no avail.

“We wanted a dialogue session, so we can discuss and compromise. We are their clients, we want good service from the school. But they totally ignored us. They said they only wanted one-to-one session,” said Halida, whose 19-year-old son has developmental dyspraxia, which impairs his speech and other brain functions.

Seeing that their complaints have fallen on deaf ears, some 20 parents banded together and refused to pay the February fee until a proper explanation was given.

The parents later agreed to pay only the old fee and had banked it into the Impian’s account on Feb 29. However, the school rejected the amount, sparking a war of words yesterday morning.

Parent’s moral duty

The parents have forwarded their complaints to the Social Welfare Department, the State Education Department and the Public Complaints Bureau.

Meanwhile, at a press conference today, Impian chairman Dr K Mangalaveni defended the school’s actions and justified the dismissal of the special children.

“Since its inception in 2000, Impian has never changed the fee of RM800 for seniors and RM600 for juniors,” she said. “However, over the years, our former principal had, without the knowledge of the board or management, given discounts to parents who paid various fees.”

The previous headmaster has now been replaced with a new acting principal Su Sivaraja, who had taken on an advisory role since late last year.

Mangalaveni said of late, it has become very difficult to maintain the centre, including paying the 20 school teachers and staff and other costs.

“I could not afford to keep it running without doing something drastic,” she said.

She said every year, the centre made no earnings as expenses would usually amount to about RM300,000 plus.

“All our costs exceed the donations and contributions,” she said, adding that her donations from her personal savings and donations from the Damai Service Hospital Melawati, where she is director, have over the years amounted to more than RM1million.

But she said the losses, over the years, totalled more than RM1million.

“Every year, I am already burdened to make ends meet. I am exhausted financially and emotionally. I have to struggle, hoping the public can donate to us,” she said.

“It is the parent’s moral duty as much as mine to contribute and help keep this centre running. They should pay the whole fee, and not an amount of their choice. How could they just dictate what they wanted to pay?”

‘I was bleeding inside’

Mangalaveni, who also has a 31-year-old austistic son in the centre, said that she felt sad yesterday for having to bar the children from coming into the centre.

“I felt sorry for the children because they became the victims. They were made use of by these parents. So many of them wanted to go in and see their friends. Some of them went berserk and hysterical. I was bleeding inside to see them, but I had to put my foot down,” she said.

When asked about the school’s refusal to discuss the issues with the parents, Mangalaveni said that she herself had been become a victinm of the abusive and aggressive parents.

“In our meetings on Dec 14 and Dec 20, last year, we told them of the decision to streamline the fees. But we were aggressively questioned and scolded.

“It was a bullying session, much like what happened yesterday when they shouted in front of their children,” she said.

Mangalaveni alleged that the parents could afford the slight increase in fees but they were being unreasonable.

On allegations that some children are being neglected or even beaten sometimes, she said she had never received any such complaints.

On whether the problems can be resolved, she said she might still consider on condition that the parents came individually.