Although parents of children with Asperger syndrome supposedly have the legal right to choose their children’s schools freely, we know of cases in which this right is not respected. Program guest Agnieszka Basta told the story of one mother. The woman confided in her about a situation in which a headteacher subordinate to commune head Andrzej Dutkowski effectively discouraged her from enrolling her child in the school in Kruszyn. The child was accepted by Primary School No. 5 in Bolesławiec. The mother is grateful and delighted by the conduct of the school’s headteacher, Katarzyna Reguła, who responded to her needs.
According to Agnieszka Basta, there is no institution in Bolesławiec that meets the needs of children with autism. The special school does not adequately address this condition. The main issue concerns space limitations, but another problem is the empathy of the people who professionally work with autistic children. In the opinion of the Studio Bolesławiec guest, many people at the school are wonderful, but there are also people who lack not only empathy but also knowledge about autism.
The system works in preschools, but a major problem begins when children start school. Autistic children end up in a special school because they have no other alternative. Children with Asperger syndrome, who in many cases are very gifted, attend a local-government school and are assigned a support teacher. “And in this case, everything depends on what kind of person it is,” says Agnieszka Basta.
