A centre providing education for the mentally disabled in Cork would be shut down by the US authorities because of the absence of adequate documentation on its clients, the High Court was told yesterday.
The COPE Foundation, which operates St Paul's school and its "Orchard" classrooms in Cork, was not providing the care or education required by a 22-year-old autistic and severely disabled man. Nor had it provided such care over the past 20 years, despite assessments at various stages outlining what the man required, said Ms Elizabeth Osten, a US expert on autism.
Ms Osten was giving evidence on the fifth day of an action by Mr Jamie Sinnott and his mother, Ms Kathryn Sinnott, of Ballinhassig, Co Cork, against the Minister for Education and the State. They want a declaration that the State breached their constitutional rights in failing to provide appropriate primary education for Mr Sinnott, an order directing such education be provided now and damages.
The defendants say Mr Sinnott was provided with education and deny they have an obligation to provide free primary education for him past the age of 18.
Ms Osten said the staff at COPE were very caring and well-meaning but their programme for Mr Sinnott was not suitable, his teacher had no qualification in special education, there were not enough teachers for pupils and he was not receiving the language, speech and occupational therapy he required.
She said the COPE centre also suffered from an absence of monitoring and co-ordination from the Department of Education and other authorities.
When she visited the centre earlier this week with another US expert on autism, she was surprised at how thin its file on Mr Sinnott was. The 10-page report she and Dr Margaret Creedon had compiled on their 1 1/2-day visit was probably longer than the file of about 12 brief reports.
The COPE file was not detailed and held insufficient information on which to develop an appropriate educational programme for Mr Sinnott. She had been told much of the information on Mr Sinnott was given verbally. There was no indication the Department of Education was in any way involved.
Cross-examined by Mr James O'Reilly SC, for the State, Ms Osten agreed that Mr Sinnott's teacher at St Paul's was a qualified secondary schoolteacher.
Mr O'Reilly said the teacher had also worked at COPE for some years and was familiar with the way things were done there. He said Ms Osten was advocating an ideal situation when there was an ideal and a norm.
Ms Osten said what she saw at COPE was neither ideal nor the norm but was less than the norm. The teacher in question was "on target" with the needs of some of her pupils but was not meeting Mr Sinnott's needs.
She agreed that a ratio of one teacher and two aides to five students, as applied in Mr Sinnott's class, was a good ratio. She also agreed the swimming facilities were very good but said Mr Sinnott had, for unclear reasons, not yet benefited from them.
Mr O'Reilly put it to Ms Osten that occupational, physical and language therapy services were available at COPE if a teacher requested them for any student. Ms Osten said they were theoretically available but were not actually applied because of insufficient staff. There were just two physical therapists, although COPE had some 1,600 students.
Mr O'Reilly said there would be evidence about a dearth of physical therapists. Ms Osten said if she was a COPE administrator she would be "screaming bloody murder" for more training.
She agreed a programme was being carried out for Mr Sinnott but said no suitably qualified person was monitoring it. She agreed it was very difficult to provide appropriate educational services to severely disabled persons.
The hearing continues.
