Sitting in the front room of her home in Portlaoise, Geneviève Finane-Fagan tearfully describes the heartbreak herself and every other parent, teacher and staff member feels about the appalling conditions of the Kolbe Special School site.
Geneviève and her husband John have three daughters – Carly, Grace and Lucy. Lucy, aged 12, has a Epilepsy, a genetic disease and severe non-verbal autism. She attends Kolbe Special School.
“It breaks my heart every morning – to see our two other girls going off to state-of the-art schools and she’s going to prefabs,” said a tearful Geneviève.
When she contacted LaoisToday, she described damp found in a classroom, needing to go outside to use a toilet, no wheelchair access to prefabs, overcrowding and little to no ventilation for the 40 pupils and staff working there.
“I just don’t get it. In 2018 these children are just hidden away in prefabs. They should be able to go to a safe place and get their therapy.
“Their teachers should be able to work in proper conditions. It’s just disgraceful. It’s undignified and it’s just wrong. Really, really wrong
“Prisoners wouldn’t be held there. If the prisoners were held in Kolbe, in the conditions of those buildings, there would be uproar. There would be uproar that it goes against human rights – and that’s where these children are, who have never done anything to deserve that in their lives.”
She says that her biggest fear is that the school will be closed on Health and Safety grounds.
“There will be nowhere for these children to go. If that happens, I don’t know what parents will do. There’s no services for us to fall back on.
“There’s no proper ventilation. They’ve tiny little windows and no vents because it’s so old. There’s none of that, so they’re going to be sick the whole winter.
“Last year there was no water and there was no heat in some of the prefabs. If that happens again this year with a bad winter, they won’t be able to go to school.
“I just don’t understand, how in 2018, that this is happening. If we’ve another bad storm that school isn’t going to survive it. It’s absolutely heartbreaking – she deserves the same as her sisters.
“It’s just hidden there, and people drive by it – but they don’t stop to think that it could happen to their child. None of us know when Special Needs are going to come to our door,” she whispered.
Little Lucy has had three kidney infections since she went back to school in September because she doesn’t want to use the outside toilet, so she doesn’t use it during school hours.
“There’s no toilet in her classroom and she won’t use the staff one because she’s not used to it. So now she has to go out through the main building outside to her old classroom to use a toilet. The staff are great and bring her every hour out to that toilet – but she’ll hold and hold and hold until she gets back home.
“It’s like my granny’s house – using an outhouse. That was in the 1970s. Now it’s 2018 and the kids in Lucy’s class have to go out to use a toilet. Imagine going out in the freezing cold or the snow or the winter rain?”
Services have also been drastically cut since Lucy first attended Kolbe five years ago.
“There’s no behavioural therapist. The occupational therapist left and wasn’t replaced by the HSE. The physio retired and wasn’t replaced. There’s no sensory classroom anymore and speech and language don’t come to the school because there’s no space for them.
“Last year the PE lady wouldn’t come in on health and safety grounds because it was too dangerous. There was too much equipment in the hall and she had no room to work, and I can’t blame her.
“They could do great things if they’re just given the chance to,” said Geneviève.
Kolbe also had to call off their Christmas concert because it’s not safe to hold it in the current facilities.
“Someone is going to be hurt – whether it’s a staff member or a child, something is going to happen.
“I would keep her at home if I could but she loves school. She loves the bus and waits at the window for the bus every morning. She loves the routine of it.”
Geneviève’s daughter Grace has high-functioning autism and dyspraxia, but is able to go to a mainstream school and receive brilliant supports.
“Grace can go to Holy Family NS and she’ll get her resource hours, she can get movement breaks and she has a resource teacher. They have the gym – if she’s overwhelmed the SNA can walk her around there.
“I don’t have to worry about her. That she’s cold, that she won’t use the toilet, that she’s overwhelmed in school.
“For Grace, getting her diagnosis was hard – but we know she’ll be okay. But Lucy won’t, and they should have the best of facilities there,” said a visibly upset Geneviève.
‘How can a teacher face going into that?’
The Rathdowney native couldn’t have praised the staff of Kolbe enough and highlighted their care and dedication to every pupil.
“The staff are fantastic. I don’t know how they work under those conditions. They work off different plans for every child, they will do their absolute best. You couldn’t praise them enough. To do that job, takes a really special person.
“How can a teacher face going into that? How can they work and keep up that morale? You can see it on the staff when you go in there – they look tired and they look worried,” she said.
The school was promised not a new classroom but a new prefab in September. They didn’t even receive that.
“We were promised a new prefab in September and staff had to bring in tables and chairs because there was no class ready.
“We don’t understand why there’s not more pressure on people high-up. The land is there for the school and they deserve a proper school. No-one in power has really come forward and said, ‘Right, we need to do this.’ Simon Harris is digging his head in the sand.”
A nurse by profession, Geneviève and her family have made huge sacrifices over the years – and she is now a full-time carer and does occupational therapy with her daughters.
“Lucy and Grace haven’t had therapy in two and a half years from the HSE.”
Genevieve gets up at 6.30am every morning. She does occupational therapy with Lucy and Grace, makes breakfast, checks medication, goes through some deep measure exercises with Lucy, and washes and dresses her all before school.
“We don’t have a choice – you have to get up and get on with it. You can’t sit down and feel sorry for yourself – you have to get up and fight.”
It’s not the time spent caring for her children that Geneviève minds, that to her is almost second nature now. But her biggest concern is if this school is not updated and closes, her and so many other parents will be left stranded.
“I’m absolutely terrified. As are all the other parents,” she concluded.
Kolbe parents and staff are now looking to put their school to the forefront of issues that need to be changed at the top level.
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