PSA for autistic teens looking at schools in Kent England

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circecil
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Joined: 29 Aug 2020
Gender: Female
Posts: 1
Location: England

29 Aug 2020, 1:33 pm

Hi, I haven't posted before (ever), and this is my first time visiting this forum, but I really felt like I needed to get the word out here, as it seems that I'm the only person who's spoken up about this

There's a secondary school in the Kent area of England called Hadlow Rural Community School.
DO NOT. I repeat. DO NOT let yourself or any of your autistic loved ones go here. I am sure that neurotypicals find it just fine, but the place is an absolute hellhole for anybody on the spectrum.

I was emotionally abused by the staff there for four years of my life. It's been three years since I left, and I have never recovered emotionally or physically from the things I went through in the school. The staff insisted that I was a problem child and that I was lying about my autism. The SenCo at the time, a woman called Miss Twohig/Simms, tried to convince my mother that I was just researching 'big words' to tell people, because there's no way I could be autistic and smart at the same time.
I was locked in the isolation room- An incredibly claustrophobic, plain white room with a window into the office- for an entire day after I had an anxiety attack following the day's first lesson. I wasn't allowed to leave my chair or make any noise, or the teacher watching over me would yell at me and tell me that I was acting out for attention.
I was repeatedly called ret*d by multiple members of staff. I don't think I need to express how wrong this is.
I was denied access to stim/stress toys until the last year I stayed there, and the entire staff of the school refused to admit that I might do better in specialty education, as they were convinced it would make me dumber.

Please spread the word about this school any way you can. I really don't know how or where to post things like this as it's a relatively small school and all of the review websites I've seen are for parents only, and I don't know if I could convince my mum to write a review detailing everything I went through. I'm so sorry if things like this aren't allowed to be posted here, I just needed to get the word out. Thank you so much for reading, and please stay safe.



Carpeta
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29 Aug 2020, 1:35 pm

How terrible. I am so sorry you went through that. :cry:


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Pieplup
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30 Aug 2020, 5:02 pm

circecil wrote:
Hi, I haven't posted before (ever), and this is my first time visiting this forum, but I really felt like I needed to get the word out here, as it seems that I'm the only person who's spoken up about this

There's a secondary school in the Kent area of England called Hadlow Rural Community School.
DO NOT. I repeat. DO NOT let yourself or any of your autistic loved ones go here. I am sure that neurotypicals find it just fine, but the place is an absolute hellhole for anybody on the spectrum.

I was emotionally abused by the staff there for four years of my life. It's been three years since I left, and I have never recovered emotionally or physically from the things I went through in the school. The staff insisted that I was a problem child and that I was lying about my autism. The SenCo at the time, a woman called Miss Twohig/Simms, tried to convince my mother that I was just researching 'big words' to tell people, because there's no way I could be autistic and smart at the same time.
I was locked in the isolation room- An incredibly claustrophobic, plain white room with a window into the office- for an entire day after I had an anxiety attack following the day's first lesson. I wasn't allowed to leave my chair or make any noise, or the teacher watching over me would yell at me and tell me that I was acting out for attention.
I was repeatedly called ret*d by multiple members of staff. I don't think I need to express how wrong this is.
I was denied access to stim/stress toys until the last year I stayed there, and the entire staff of the school refused to admit that I might do better in specialty education, as they were convinced it would make me dumber.

Please spread the word about this school any way you can. I really don't know how or where to post things like this as it's a relatively small school and all of the review websites I've seen are for parents only, and I don't know if I could convince my mum to write a review detailing everything I went through. I'm so sorry if things like this aren't allowed to be posted here, I just needed to get the word out. Thank you so much for reading, and please stay safe.

I understand your frustration, and have had similar frustration with school systems althought not as severe. I have similiarly been mistreated by teachers. Unfortantely i'm not sure how effective this would be. As the amount of active members on this forum that are teenagers are little to none. However I'd suggest spreading teh news on more popular platforms for younger people like discord, or twitter or facebook or something idk.


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I am pieplup i have level 3 autism and a number of severe mental illnesses. I am rarely active on here anymore.
I run a discord for moderate-severely autistic people if anyone would like to join. You can also contact me on discord @Pieplup or by email at [email protected]