2023-11-19 05:00:00
Mélissa contacted us via the orange button Alert us. She and her husband are struggling to find a school for their child with a disability. Distraught, the young parents fight to open an adapted school. For the moment, there are only two in all of Walloon Brabant.
Ernest, three years old, is an extraordinary little boy. He suffers from Coffin-Siris syndrome, a genetic disorder that “induces growth retardation, motor delay and delay in cognitive development“, explains Jérémy, his dad. The particularity of this pathology is that we don’t know how it evolves, each gesture is a victory. Like when Ernest learned to walk, “It arrived late, but it arrived and we are super happy“.
Pour “to evolve” the child as much as possible, the parents made the difficult decision to send him to the William Lenox Institute, a full boarding school. “It was hard for us to make this choice, but we did what was best for him“, admits Melissa.
After a suitable nursery and a hospital center which suits him perfectly, it is a question of finding a school for the little boy. But this is no easy feat. “Every stage of Ernest’s life is complicated“, regrets the mother. And for good reason, the little family lives in Nivelles. However, in all of Walloon Brabant, there is only one specialized school that might accommodate Ernest. According to the tests he passed, the child must join a type 2 school: “There are two in Walloon Brabant, one is complete and the other only accepts children with autism“, explains Mélissa.
He is traumatized as soon as there are more than 10 children
“We need help”
Although they know the school environment well because they are both teachers, Jérémy and Mélissa are distraught. Traveling too long is unthinkable for the young boy: “We tried to get him to take the shuttle so he wouldn’t stay in boarding school, but it destroyed him.“, says the mother.
According to Thomas Dabeux of the ASBL Inclusion, Ernest’s problem is far from isolated: “Often, the families we represent do not find a place in the school of their choice. We don’t always have guarantees of having a place that is close enough to where the family lives..” He keeps on: “I think we really need to work on bringing the educational offering closer to people’s places of life to prevent these children from being sent very far from home, to make ordinary and specialized work better together.“
The problem is that once once more, inclusive classes are not a solution for Ernest. These ordinary education classes which welcome children with disabilities are too large. “He is traumatized as soon as there are more than 10 children“, says the mother.
As there is no solution, Jérémy and Mélissa simply decided to create one. They want to open a specialized establishment in their region. To do this, they launched a petition, already supported by nearly 2,800 people. “We ring every bell possible because we need help“, says the Nivelloise.
An ambitious project
To open a third type 2 school in Walloon Brabant, it is the organizing authorities who intervene and not the Administration. “The municipalities do not have the possibility of putting this in place, in any case, the town of Nivelles does not have the means to develop a school of this type. We might perhaps set up an inclusive class but once more, these are additional means“, specifies Isabelle Bourlez, the alderman in charge of education in the commune of Nivelles.
While waiting to complete this project, Mélissa and Jérémy will be forced to enroll Ernest in a regular school which has an inclusive class. “It’s the only solution, but it’s true that it’s not ideal.“, concludes Mélissa.
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