My daughter Lydia is a young girl who had a difficult start in life. She does not find the school environment easy and is navigating a close family bereavement as well as struggling with her SEND diagnosis. She also faces bullying at school. At just nine years old, Lydia was suspended due to an incident that occurred at lunch time because of a lack of support and supervision. Suspension has been an unnecessary stress for our family and could have complicated the search for a secondary school that will support her properly in the future.
I will never forget that when I told Lydia about her suspension, she said to me: “I bet you wish you never adopted me”. No nine-year-old should ever be made to feel this way – she is just a child. A child who deserves support and to be uplifted, not torn down. As part of her autism, she already has rejection sensitivity, so this just compounded that for her. If the proper resources and support were available at the time of the incident, so much time, stress and struggle could have been avoided.
