More than 30 people demonstrated outside the Ministry of Education on Saturday to demand an intervention to allow an 11-year-old boy with Down syndrome to return to the school that expelled him.
“Every morning he gets dressed and comes out the door and says he wants to go to school. She misses it very much,” said her older sister Nour Djilani Kobibi.
Photo Nour Djilani Kobibi
For the past three months, the family of little Abdelkader has taken turns taking unpaid leave to look after the child with Down’s syndrome, which they don’t think is a permanent solution.
“The school expelled him on the pretext that he was an aggressive kid and that he was a danger to staff, but I know my brother and that’s not the case at all. Yes, he does stupid things sometimes, but never to the point of saying it’s a public hazard and he can’t go to school anymore,” Nour explained.
Photo Nour Djilani Kobibi
In the weeks after their son’s deportation, Abdel’s parents knocked on everyone’s doors, concerned that the school system might be untouched by their hardship.
“We struck everywhere with no results. Today we stand here in front of the ministry because our son no longer goes to school for reasons directly related to the incompetence of certain adults supervising him,” Abdel’s father, Belkacem Djilani, said on Saturday. kobibi
protest
About thirty relatives and parents of special needs children gathered on Fullum Street on Saturday afternoon to support Abdel and his family.
“We call on Education Minister Bernard Drainville to intervene so that Abdel immediately attends a school that meets his needs and that the government takes the necessary measures as soon as possible to ensure the rights of all students are respected. including going to school,” his father said.
Photo Nour Djilani Kobibi
According to him, the government should allocate more funds to schools for children with disabilities to properly train staff and meet the needs of students with special needs.
“We, the parents of children with disabilities, bitterly experience the discrimination that is perpetrated against our children. It is time things changed and the government intervened to put an end to this catastrophic situation,” said Mr Djilani Kobibi.
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