Bucharest, 23rd March 2016. The European Center for the Rights of Children with Disabilities (CEDCD) has notified the National Council for Combating Discrimination in the case of an 8 year old girl from Galaţi County, diagnosed with an autistic spectrum disorder (Asperger Syndrome), excluded from Secondary School no. 10, Petre Ţuţea in Galaţi.
In 2014, based on her educational orientation certificate issued by CJRAE Galaţi, young Adelina was enrolled to the zero grade of Secondary School no.10 in Galaţi, along with her sister. During the entire year, the two sisters have been isolated and treated differently by the teacher, who has continuously pressured the parents to withdraw Adelina from school.
In spite of the difficulties, the parents tried to keep their children together, at the same school, including in the first grade. Starting with the school year 2015, things have become more severe, as Adelina’s teacher forbade her to come to school. Moreover, the teacher has taken all steps in order for Adelina’s parents to withdraw her from school. We enumerate by way of example: refusing to ensure her a place in a desk, refusing to talk to the girl’s personal assistant and her parents, denying her an adapted curriculum, offending and isolating both Adelina and her sister.
In this context, her parents addressed the school management which support the teacher’s behavior, explicitly denying Adelina’s integration in school.
All these abusive treatments have had severe repercussions for the two sisters, both in terms of emotions and behavior, with Adelina’s sister being equally discriminated and isolated by association with her sister.
Pressured by the teacher and the school management, the parents were obliged to request the children’s transfer in a school unit outside their living area. This fact is rendering the children’s access to education particularly difficult and puts an additional burden on the parents, who must transport them daily by cab to school.
“We are extremely concerned over the situation of the two girls in Galaţi, particularly as these cases are not an exception, but a phenomenon at the level of the entire Romanian educational system. In spite of CEDCD efforts and of numerous decisions of the National Council for Combating Discrimination, which sanctions discrimination in case of children with disabilities, the Ministry of Education still refuses to adopt measures of prevention and sanctioning of these acts. We will continue to fight for the rights of these children and will make use of all legal means, as well as international fora, for the Ministry of Education to assume the inclusion of children with disabilities, which is an obligation and by no means an option”, stated Mădălina TURZA, president of CEDCD.
Contact person:
Madalina TURZA
Email: madalina.turza@cedcd.ro
Mob: 0737545955
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