I Teach Autism received the following guest post from Anna Kennedy.  It details an all too familiar story for many in the autism community.  Anna graciously wrote about her story; two sons’, one with autism and the other with aspergers.  It struck a chord here at I Teach Autism because we know how hard fighting for her two sons’ education had to be.  If the below strikes the same chord for you as it did us, you may want to visit her site and possibly her book.

Not stupid: one woman’s fight for her sons’ education
by Anna Kennedy

In January 1990 I gave birth to my first son, Patrick. At first, despite
several health scares, it seemed Patrick was progressing normally. Then,
at the age of seven, he began displaying erratic behavior and became
extremely distressed at school. His educational progress was severely
limited.

Three years later, I gave birth to my second son, Angelo, who, at the age
of two and a half, also began displaying most abnormal behavior. At an
assessment, Angelo was diagnosed with autism and, naturally, this was a
scary and devastating blow for my husband, Sean, and myself.

Meanwhile, Patrick’s strange behavior and protests at being taken to
school intensified. He was diagnosed as having Asperger’s syndrome but,
unfortunately, it was three years before this diagnosis was revealed to me
and my husband! This meant that Patrick, wholly unsuited to mainstream
education, had been forced to endure the trauma of not understanding what
was required of him, and taunts such as “bird brain” from other children,
at a school totally ill-equipped to cater for his specific needs.

Worse was to follow, in fact, much worse! A total of 26 special schools,
within an hours drive of where my family and I lived, turned down
applications for my boys’ placements. Doors were being shut in our faces
on a regular basis and we hardly knew where to turn.

With a friend, I began a support group for families in a similar
situation, which soon became fully subscribed. Faced with the difficulty
of finding anywhere that would provide educational support for my boys,
and our inability to find suitable childcare for children on the autistic
spectrum in our locality, we took drastic measures. Having discovered a
derelict school in Hillingdon, we approached the local council and asked
if we could purchase it and turn it into a center of excellence for
children on the autistic spectrum.

There were numerous bureaucratic obstacles in our way, but we resolved to
take on the endless red tape, small print and financial obstacles to turn
this dream into a reality, despite the fact that we had no training in
educational provision. This would be a daunting prospect for anyone, but
with two young sons affected by autistic spectrum disorders (ASD), and a
husband also diagnosed with Asperger’s syndrome, you can only imagine the
endless stress, determination and hard work that was involved for me and
my family.

Hillingdon Borough Council eventually agreed to lease the school to us,
but at an asking price of £627,000! Obviously, we did not have such a sum
of money in our bank account, but, even then, we refused to accept defeat;
we re-mortgaged our small home and rallied the support of local
councilors, local companies, charities and the media to get the venture
off the ground. After much hard work, endless campaigning, tears and
frustrations, we eventually found ourselves in a position to recruit an
experienced headteacher and suitably qualified staff who would assist us
in opening Hillingdon Manor School on 4 September 1999.

The school initially provided education and life skills to nineteen pupils
between three and nineteen years of age, but that was just the start.
Since then, Hillingdon Manor School has gone from strength to strength and
has helped hundreds of children on the autistic spectrum to get the
education they deserve and are entitled to.

However, because of the lack of suitable facilities elsewhere, the school
soon became over-subscribed. As a result, I decided that we should take
things even further. I was determined that other families should not find
themselves in the position that my husband and I had endured with our own
sons. The decision was taken to borrow enough money to expand the
facilities we offered and, despite the personal financial risks involved,
we pushed ahead with plans to open a new secondary school, which now
provides specialist education for 95 children in total.

One of my chief desires, throughout all of this, has been to provide
ongoing educational, vocational and life skills support for my sons and
others. ASD are lifelong conditions, so there were real concerns for our
sons’ well-being once they passed normal school leaving age. With the help
of our supporters, I therefore took the decision to further enhance our
educational provision by setting up the West London Community College, a
small, independent life skills center which caters for the specific and
complex needs of adult students with ASD. Using a person-centered approach,
we provide high quality individual programs for each student.

Not content with our schools and college, I was looking even further
ahead. Our team created an eight bedroom residential home, now known as
The Old Vicarage, where adults with an autistic spectrum disorder live,
with support from specially trained staff.

All in all, it has been an incredible journey, from the initial idea for
Hillingdon Manor School to where we are now, and it has been far from
easy. However, when certain councilors and bureaucrats seemed more than
willing to hinder or oppose our plans, I refused to give up. There have
been so many tears and frustrations, but I have battled through every
barrier placed before me.