Noted in the BBC news in Scotland this year a teacher, who looks so lovely in the news picture, Linda McCall at a school for children with learning difficulties, (Borders School run by Scottish Borders Council) in reality was not lovely. Instead a wolf in sheep's clothing she was charged with assaulting five vulnerable students - infants at the time, in her disabilities class who were autistic and non verbal, and aged between five and seven years old.
     How could she be so cruel? Why is she working with disability kids? These people seem to be good at being con people who portray an image of love and care as a teacher or support worker in disabilities and then do the opposite when no one is looking!
     This is why we need CCTV cameras to protect our dear ones from harm of those who are hiding what they do and look so innocent when they are not but are hurting the innocent ones who can not defend themselves. As parents our hearts break and parents become as traumatized and distraught as their children. We need to stop this continual hidden crime against our children whatever their age even as adults.
     The parents now say that the Scottish city council covered it up. The article by Gillies (May 2021) notes that The parents of vulnerable children with severe learning difficulties have accused a council of "covering up" a catalogue of violent classroom attacks.
     Parents of the children involved have told the BBC Scotland of the “life-changing trauma” they have had to endure inflicted on their families, because of these assaults by the teacher on their young children.
     One mother said her son had tried to harm himself because of the trauma, and one father said he had been driven to the point of depression from the guilt of knowing his son had been hurt at the school.
     This is what parents go through when their children are harmed. We blame ourselves we expected the school or day program to care about our children as much as we do, we trusted them to look after our child.           We are traumatized when the opposite occurs and the people we think are caring for our child are hurting them instead!      We are shocked we weep for our children and we cannot comprehend the cruel actions of those who have worked in field and think they can harm our children and its ok and they can get away with it. They should not be allowed to.
When some parents had initially reported they thought their child had been harmed the council had covered it up and said no it did not happen to your child. A few years later and it was revealed that yes their child had been harmed. How disgusting.
The article notes that “Another parent told how McCall pulled her son along the floor violently.
     "My son was crying uncontrollably," they said. "He was very scared to go to school and was hiding his uniform."
     "It makes me sick to the stomach that someone could do this to a vulnerable little boy," another mother told the BBC.
It makes us all sick that the vulnerable and non verbal unable to defend themselves and so young could be treated like this in a school at all. How dare they.
     Again the article notes “The parent of a boy at the school said: "She dragged him by one arm from the PE hall back to the classroom before forcing him into a chair."
      Tellingly it was covered up by assurances that this had not happened to their child…yet BBC Scotland has obtained a document from 2018 in which one parent was given assurances by the council that the abuse accusations against McCall "did not affect" her son in any way.
The article states “he email states the local authority's "thorough" investigation had resulted in "no further action" against McCall. The woman's son was later confirmed as a victim in McCall's criminal conviction.
Each of the five parents who have spoken to the BBC claim the council failed to inform them their children were victims. They describe first learning of the abuse from Police Scotland when criminal proceedings were later initiated.
     One parent said: "They told us categorially that not one child had been harmed. They were trying to make out that it was just the parents making a fuss out of nothing. We weren't believed."
     Isnt that so typical that parents are not believed when they make their allegations of their children being harmed? With this kind of attitudes in schools and disability organizations, indeed by police we are always banging our heads against a brick wall.
      We parents of disability children, are on a back foot with trying to prove anything for our vulnerable and non verbal children when they are harmed, assaulted or abused. We need cameras to prove that harm has happened so that perpetrators can be charged and brought to justice.
We cannot let things continue this we for our children and us the parents living in a state of hell always worried sick about our non verbal children who cannot defend themselves usually. Who cannot talk about what has happened to them.
There has now been an independent inquiry into the Scottish Borders Council’s handling of this case. Christine Grahame SNP, MSP, has said that parents were not taken seriously when they came forward (are they ever in disabilities?) and the council should not have been allowed to investigate itself. It was noted in the article that the school teacher’s husband was also a senior member of the education department on the council! For shame. Total conflict of interest.
Grahame states “"The consequence has been that vulnerable children have been left with lasting damage and trauma. The special needs of the children make this case particularly distressing, as they cannot advocate for themselves and are not able to understand what's happened to them or why. Their families are left to pick up the pieces…”
In a more recent article on the same case by Hamish Morrison (2021 November 8th) where the parents have been vindicated who were first told their children had not be abused in 2017 now the teacher was found guilty at court due to proper investigation by an
independent body https://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/.../council-liability-linda
This investigation using independent body looking into the case of the same cruel teacher, Linda McCall saw the bosses of the teacher admit to liability after first saying there had been no wrong doing back in 2017 they admitted there had after all.
The teacher was found guilty and the parents called her "evil scum" as she left court. Thank God she was found guilty and not left to go to other disability schools to hurt other children as we have seen happen here where police will not do proper investigations without camera evidence in most cases they do not even try nor do the lawyers. How slack and how uncaring of our justice system.
      It is not clear how the evidence was proven of the children being hurt by the teacher except that there were so many allegations by parents that this may have caused the school to listen and the police. When the parents brought lawyers into it that and the independent investigation made the bosses admit liability for what had happened.
       There is no mention of cameras, but here in Australia the police often will not investigate without camera evidence and the NDIS also is very slack to investigate in this area of abuse of non verbal with disabilities and why would it work investigating yourself in any case as with this case they just covered it up?
        Perhaps police are better in Scotland and actually listened to the parents even though the school and Scottish Council who ran it did not take the parents seriously. Again that could also be to cover up what they knew had happened or did not want to know what happened.
The article notes "Ms Grahame added: "The parents have now been vindicated in both the criminal court and civil court, however this I know is cold comfort. "At the centre of all this we have young children, often non-verbal and unable to clearly communicate, who have been traumatized by the abuse they endured, abuse which they were unable to understand or communicate to anyone.
      "It is an abhorrent breach of trust by those we trust to care for the most vulnerable in society and Scottish Borders Council must face up to its role in this." This is an ongoing case in Scotland as the School itself and council are being accused of 'covering up' the abuse.
       So they may be prosecuted for the actual covering up as lawyers take this on board as further investigation. Glad to hear it as it is also a problem in Australia the covering up and no one seems to get in trouble for that amongst the providers and their corporate organizations. They should get in trouble for it since it is lying and covering up crime - concealment of crime you can be charged with for not reporting what you know and see is happening.
     Here in Australia as we know cases and charges are often dropped in disabilities abuse allegations due to 'lack of evidence' it seems the law system here is not keen to help protect or prosecute those who harm the vulnerable and non verbal. We need this to change.
Sign my petition: change.org/disabilitycameras
and stand with me to demand these changes so that we can prosecute and deter those who would harm our children who are non verbal and vulnerable in disabilities.
     Stand up and create public awareness of the need for mandatory CCTV cameras in disability places of care without them there is no accountability by providers, no deterrence of those who would harm our children and no protection or justice for our disability children.

all the best
Anndrea Wheatley (phone 0409042765)

#disabilitylivesmatteroz

#ifjamescouldtalkactiongroup

#cctvcameras4disabilities