"They are violating my son's right to an education." These are the words of the mother of Iván Páez, a 17-year-old from Lanzarote with a motor disability, who has had to stop attending class because the center where he studies "cannot give him the care he needs." His mother demands that her son be able to study like any other person and denounces "neglect" of duties by the Department of Education, although the Department denies it.
Iván suffers from Duchenne muscular dystrophy, a degenerative disease that was diagnosed when he was five years old and that led him to be "in a wheelchair" at the age of eight, according to his mother, Yarely Páez. He completed primary education at the CEIP Capellanía del Yágabo, where his mother points out that "they were able to put all the means for the needs that he presented in his day, which are different from the current ones given the worsening of health."
After finishing his primary studies, he was referred to the IES César Manrique, which is the secondary school in Arrecife that is enabled for preferential motor care and where he currently studies. There, according to his mother, he completed the first year of ESO normally and, given the learning difficulties that were detected, he then went on to study the Learning and Performance Improvement Program (PMAR).
With the arrival of the pandemic, "due to his state of health" they decided that Iván should stop attending class. "He was a high-risk patient and, not being vaccinated, we decided that he should stay at home working, receiving his classes online, so that he would not have any contagion problems until he received his vaccine," he says.
Care that cannot be performed at the center
Now, a year later, Iván "has already received the vaccine" and on Monday of last week he returned to class. "He lasted all day, he came very motivated, wanting to return, and excited to see his classmates and teachers and to return to his normal life," says Yarely, who says that, however, a day later, problems arose. And, according to her, her son's state of health "has worsened" and now he wears "a dressing on his side, due to a malformation he has on his back as a result of his illness, which often falls off and has to be put back on or changed for another", and this is what happened on Tuesday.
Then, Yarely says that she received a call from the school's management to pick up her son. "They wanted me to leave my job to change his dressing because they claim that it is not within their functions as assistants; that it is a nursing job, with all the reason in the world," she says.
Since then, she says that her son is at home without being able to attend class, because the center does not have staff to meet her son's needs. In addition, she assures that, as a result of what happened on Tuesday, Iván suffered "a pressure ulcer" and that now his health problems "have increased." Thus, she points out that right now he cannot even sit for a long time and that this even prevents him from doing homework at home.
"He has already made his teachers understand that he was not going to attend class due to the situation he is experiencing and, depending on the time he can sit, he will do more or less, because now it is what his body allows him to do. When this ulcer occurs, we have to be more careful," she says.
"But he has a huge desire to return to class, to continue his normal life," says Yarely, who is demanding that the center be provided with a nursing assistant who can care for her son so that he can return to school. Something that she defends is "a right".
In this regard, she says that she already made a request to the center "some time ago", but considers that "they ignored it" or that "either the center, or the inspector or, where appropriate, the educational authority has neglected their duties", since "they have not" given her a solution. "It is no longer a call for Iván, it is for what will come after with similar situations," says Yarely, who considers that "it is not fair" the situation that her son is going through.
"We cannot choose a center, because there is only one preferential motor center. They assign it to us, and if they assign it to us, they have to guarantee, especially to them, that the time they are there will have their needs covered. I think that whoever does not want to see this is because they are blind or because it does not affect them closely, but we must be in solidarity and also, since we are so much with the law, by law it belongs to him and they are not giving him that right, they are taking it away from him," she adds.
Thus, this mother demands a solution for her son. "But I don't want the solution to be given next year, I want it to be given now, which is when the problem is," she demands.
The Department of Education denies "neglect"
For its part, the Department of Education states that they did not know about Iván's new situation until he returned to the center last week. "It was not known before," they said, denying that they had previously received a request to provide the center with a nursing assistant.
In addition, they stated that in these cases, the requests must be "justified" by "a medical report", which the mother "submitted this Tuesday".
Thus, they have denied that there has been "neglect" of duties. In fact, they have stated that, after learning last week of Iván's situation, "the inspector went to work together with the center's management to find a solution, which involves looking for alternatives for that child."
In this sense, they have stated that Iván has been offered online training "to avoid transfers" due to his "delicate health situation" and that "it has been rejected by the family." Now, the Department of Education states that it will study whether to provide the center with a nursing assistant, although the Department of Education does not know when this solution could arrive if it were deemed so. "Because now, nursing assistants, with a pandemic, there are none on the market, unemployed," they have transferred.
