The Sentirte association has denounced in a press release that the autistic minor expelled from the school cafeteria in Lanzarote continues without being able to rejoin the service, despite the fact that the necessary support has already been obtained to guarantee his care.
The case, which generated strong social alarm after becoming public, "evidenced the exclusion of classroom students in the dining room context due to the lack of support staff outside school hours", a situation that the association initially described as "unjust and discriminatory".
Sentirte has achieved that the minor has a specific support resource, financed through funds from the Cabildo de Lanzarote, with the aim of guaranteeing their care in adequate conditions within the school cafeteria.
However, and despite the initial problem having been resolved, the educational center refuses to readmit the minor to the service. As the director himself has conveyed to the family, the child will not be able to rejoin the dining hall, a decision that the association considers "incomprehensible, unjustified, and absolutely contrary to the rights of the minor".
To this situation is also added the family reality of the minor, whose father holds full custody and does not have a support network that allows him to take care of the child during mealtime hours, which further aggravates the impact of this decision and seriously hinders his work-life balance.
From Sentirte they emphasize that maintaining exclusion in these circumstances implies "a direct violation of the right to educational inclusion", by denying access to an essential service even when the necessary means to guarantee it already exist. “The most serious thing is that there are no more excuses. The resource has been obtained, it is financed, and even so, the refusal is maintained. This is not a problem of means, it is a decision. And the worst: they don't even want to try it,” they denounce.
The association has also wanted to point out the "unacceptable silence of the Ministry of Education of the Government of the Canary Islands regarding this situation, denouncing that its head, Carmen Pellón, has not received either the family or the entity itself despite the seriousness of the case".
Feeling you requires an immediate solution that allows the reincorporation of the minor to the school cafeteria under conditions of equality, as well as an urgent action by the Ministry to guarantee the effective fulfillment of the rights of students with specific educational support needs.