For Beth Morrison, the details of 21 September 2010 remain etched in her memory.
She had walked onto her driveway in Dundee to collect her disabled son from his school taxi, when the driver told her: “There’s something wrong with Calum.”
She immediately noticed that his lips were blue, he was wearing different clothing with no socks or underwear and his school uniform was soaked wet with urine in a plastic bag. Calum, who has epilepsy, cerebral palsy, autism and learning disabilities, collapsed into her arms and said: “I’m dizzy mummy, teacher hurt”.
Mrs Morrison called the school immediately but received no response. It wasn’t until Monday that she found out her then 11-year-old son had been held face-down for 40 minutes by nine staff members. Calum had lost consciousness and urinated before being strapped down in his wet clothes to a chair, while staff stood over him with an egg timer to “show him he was being punished”.
Calum’s parents had been delighted when he received a place at Kingspark, a special needs school. At the time, his epilepsy had been “uncontrollable”, and Kingspark provided a fully staffed medical unit and an enhanced support area, where a crash team of medics could reach pupils within two minutes.
His ‘crime’? Failing to understand a teacher’s request for him to get off a bike that he was riding in the school gym. Upon speaking to the headteacher, Mrs Morrison says she was told: “Don’t worry, we can handle this. Calum needs to learn to behave.”
“It was all recorded,” Mrs Morrison said. “The headteacher went to a multi-agency meeting and police were told that the staff had no intent to harm Calum. The police didn’t take it any further.
