‘Rotting’ school for autistic children appeals to Foley to step in

A school for children with autism has challenged Minster for Education Norma Foley to fix a litany of problems from "sinking" floors to a lack of physical space for students it says have been ignored for years.

Hand sanitiser dispensers at the Stepping Stones School at Kilcloon, Co Meath routinely fall off the thin walls and the narrow corridor cannot fit two metre social distancing stickers, the school claims.

Until last year, staff had been forced to use a storage cupboard as a sensory room for its pupils because they had no other option.

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Repaired walls at Stepping Stones, special school for students with autism and complex needs in Kilcloon, Co Meath. Photograph: Alan Betson

This week, school principal Dolores Cullinane wrote to Ms Foley in the hope that years of pleas for help might finally be addressed.

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“Someone said to me, the worst days at Stepping Stones are the rainy days. Because we can’t use the playground and there are queues for the sensory room,” she said of the debilitating lack of facilities. “It’s so frustrating. We just feel like we are the forgotten ones.”

Stepping Stones comprises two prefabs - the larger one dating back to 2005 is divided into five classrooms. It hosts 30 children with autism and complex needs, five teachers and 26 special needs assistants.

Rot spreading

Since it was provided by parents in 2005 by way of a loan for a then private school, its floors have been replaced but continue to deteriorate and sink, Ms Cullinane said. The rot is now spreading to the walls.

Single toilets in the classrooms are regularly blocked, forcing students to use other rooms, which is challenging for children dependent on routine.

The Department of Education, which took it over in 2011, sent an inspection team in December but the school says it is still awaiting a response.

“The architect said: ‘I can’t believe you have been left in this building’,” Ms Cullinane said.

Even a visit by former minister Joe McHugh proved anticlimactic. “We heard nothing after.”

In her letter to Ms Foley this week, Ms Cullinane describes how limited space makes day to day activity “extremely dangerous” for students and staff.

“We have holes where rats and mice are coming into the school, and even though these holes are continually patched up by the caretaker, more holes are appearing due to rot,” she wrote.

“Minister, you have said that you have picked a side, you chose the side of the special needs child. Now it is time to act. Give us the help we need.”

In a statement, the Department of Education said: “Officials from the Department’s planning and building unit are currently engaging with the school authority in relation to the provision of additional interim temporary accommodation. In addition, the department is also exploring all available options with a view to providing a new permanent building for the school as quickly as possible.”