Education obliges the school of Lanzarote to readmit the minor with autism to its dining room

The fight of Samuel Martín, the Lanzarote father of the autistic minor whom the CEIP Ajei of San Bartolomé did not accept in its dining hall, has borne fruit. The Ministry of Education of the Government of the Canary Islands has sent a letter to this father and to the school itself, obliging the center to incorporate the minor into the dining hall with the support of an assistant.

As you will recall, the Sentirte Association publicly denounced this situation after the school informed his father in March that the child could no longer enjoy the dining hall service that he had been using since September. According to the school, it was due to a lack of trained personnel to attend to the child, who has different diagnoses such as severe behavioral disorder or autism, from 1:30 PM to 2:30 PM. 

The center informed the father last March that the child could not continue attending the dining hall, something fundamental for his father who has full custody and works. Despite the father wanting to speak with the director to reach an agreement and find a solution, he refused. "I went to talk to him and he didn't give rise to a conversation or an attempt to find a solution between us... and in an almost authoritarian way he told me no, that at 1:30 PM and that's it." Despite this and due to the father's inability to pick up his son from school earlier, he continued to pick him up at 1:30 PM until one day, the director called Social Services.

At this point, the father decided to take matters into his own hands and begin to try to find a solution to this situation. Following the complaint from the father and the association, the Cabildo of Lanzarote was able to get an assistant to attend to the minor during the hour he remained in the dining hall. However, even after obtaining the resources, the CEIP Ajei refused to accept the minor.

"We achieved what was supposedly the problem and they didn't admit him either because if you tell me that's the problem and now you don't want to admit it either, then the problem is that you don't want to have the child or the problem is something on a personal level," he pointed out. 

Now, the Ministry of Education has sided with the father in a document sent to the parent and the school, obliging the school to admit the minor to its cafeteria until 2:30 PM with the resources provided by the Cabildo. "Taking into account the existing discrepancy, as well as the proximity of the end of the school year, the need to process the request made by the family as a priority has been communicated to the management of CEIP Ajei," says the document to which La Voz has had access.

Furthermore, it specifies that the center must carry out "the incorporation of an educational assistant funded by the Cabildo of Lanzarote, and the exceptional authorization for the student to remain at the center until 2:30 PM, under the same terms as it had been developing until the end of the second trimester, with both conditions being maintained during the remaining academic period of the current school year."

The minor will be incorporated into the center, presumably, sometime this week, as they are in the process of organizing this situation with the educational assistant. 

Likewise, Samuel Martín has recalled that next June 14th, a rally will take place in Lanzarote at 11:00 AM to speak out about the deficiencies regarding educational assistants in the Canary Islands. The demonstration will depart from Cuatro Esquinas and proceed along León y Castillo street to Casa Amarilla, where a manifesto will be read.