Heavy Metal Baby
Welcome to the weird and wonderful adventures of my family; 2 adults, 3 kids and 3 dogs. We are a fairly normal bunch of people that goes through day-to-day challenges. What could possible go wrong?
Meet the members of the Clan:
- Me – Judgebrix, father and big kid (more information below)
- Wife – mother of 4, wanna be cake designer, a fantastic mother and makes a kick ass gazpacho
- Kid 1 – 6 year old girl, experiencing pre-teen symptoms and knows how to use iPad, iMac, iTunes – everything Mac of course
- Kid 2 – 5 year old boy with determination like no other to go forward and loves Kung Fu Panda and Toy Story (+ Barnyard) … he loves boobs!
- Kid 3 – 0.1 year old girl, with an attitude that would scare Ozzy
I know it’s absolutely bizarre to have a name like Judgebrix. But, one has to be able to disguise ones identity, just like the super heroes in movies and magasines, even if I then expose myself completely by writing a blog about my family – not the brightest of ideas I know?! To be honest, it use to be my old network gamer name! (sad? I know)
My parents got married in 1965, bought a house in the outskirts of a small village (and I do mean it was the outskirts). The nearest shop was in the city centre 7 miles away – a long way to walk for a 6 year old boy. My mum was working in a bank and my dad had just started up his own business – pretty normal stuff for our parent’s generation. They got married and settled down much earlier, and life was much less stressful too.
A few years later my sister was born. I know, I shouldn’t be mentioning a lady’s age, but I didn’t say she was born in ’68, did it? Sorry sis! I followed a few years later, in the beginning of the summer, and on the same date as the Prince of Denmark.
I was born in the very early 70s and witnessed the evolution of the TV from 6 to 600 channels. My parents was one of the first families on the street to get a colour TV, and it had 6 buttons! The amount of channels we had back then ranged from mildly boring to US German dubbed TV series such as Colt Seavers, A-Team, MacGyver, Dynasty and Fraggle Rock. Growing up in Denmark, we had 2 Danish channels and 4 German channels. I was speaking German before learning my own language. Now, I have 200 channels and I have still no idea what to watch.
To learn more about me, and my family, and all our wonderful adventures, please read the blogs here. Feel free to share these (and my site) with people you might know. Hope you’ll enjoy these little stories and I’m sure they’ll make you recognise similar events in your own life.
Claim to fame:
- Proud guest daddyblogger on Eumom
- My blog was recent displayed on “I Love My Kids“
- Featured on “I Love My Kids” blog feed
Judgebrix, I’m so happy that you have exposed this school! Enough is enough! This school is not as wonderful as they want people to think they are. I together with 23 parents wrote a letter of complaint against the Lucan Educate together Board of management in November last year. Dealing with this board is like dealing with bullies and thugs! And have they done anything about this complaint? Of course not. They removed the complaint from the PTA meeting minutes to make sure nobody found out. This school should not be allowed to be called Educate Together. The board only protect their own. Yes, they have a wonderful outreach for autistic children. It should not come as a suprise that they do because the chairperson has an autistic son. Surprise surprise!! So well done Judgebrix for exposing them.
Why did they want to conceal your and the 23 parents’ complaint? And could you not complain to the patron body of your school? This chairperson sounds like she thinks she owns the school.
WOW! I’m absolutely shocked. I did hear rumours about such a letter, but it was merely word of mouth. This should not be happening in any school and the BOM needs to go. There are too many interesteing facts and stories emerging about LETNS in the last 72 hours, and these are very worrying. Surely parents have to question the school and defend pupils.
More importantly, parents need to support parents, and help them when they struggle. This school is meant to be for kids and parents, but it sounds more like a little mafia … scratching and padding each others backs!
I have only been reading the posts regarding LETNS.
@Lucy: I don’t think you understand what has happened here. You should read the article in the Irish Examiner again and again. The principal has refused to apply for an SNA. The BOM has refused to apply for any support services that will allow the child to go to a mainstream school. Without applying for support they (school or child) will not receive any support. It’s illegal to refuse a placement in a school without prooving that the school does not have the means to support his needs. Lucan Educate Together has accepted another child with Down Syndrome who also require a full time SNA. Yet, this child has been discriminated against, by not being enrolled. The media checks their stories before they print them. Maybe you should too.
I have come across your blog and the media attention you created regarding LETNS.
There seem to be alot of inconsistency’s to your story…You say you are forced to leave the country because of your son being refused a place in the school in MAY. However, you seem to have accepted a new job/life in the US in APRIL. How is this so? It would seem by your own words, you never had any intention of putting your son into the school, but rather take your other child out and begin a new life in America.
May I make a gentle suggestion that before you bring your story to the media, ensure you have your story straight.
A Parent
Lucie,
Thank you very much for your comment, I really appreciate the interaction.
For some there might seem to be inconsistencies in the stories told in the media and by other involved parties. Whether we are going to the US or not, we felt that the story had to be told, as the treatment received and the process applied by the school was flawed and did not support a child’s development – despite the application being supported by professionals in HSE.
You might think it’s an easy decision to rip up your family and move to another country, but it’s not. Ireland is our home and we will be moving away from all that’s dear to us, to start over again. Why? Our son needs a proper education and support, which we clearly can’t get in Ireland anymore, due to the cuts and an (to us) unfair enrollment process.
That said, we are not the only family going through this and this needs to be brought to the attention of the news. Kids with disabilities are not getting the required support, which is against the EPSEN. I honestly hope that this story will get people talking and hopefully the outcome will provide a better future for other kids in Ireland. We believe this is in the best interest of other kids in Ireland.
Just to clarify, it was your own words on your own blog that told the world you were delighted to be moving to the US. And this was before you were informed of the enrolement decision for your son.
I fully encourage pupils with special needs be included in mainstream school, if that is in their best interest. In fact there is a boy in my sons class who has downs syndrome. He is very much apart of the class, and his peers are crazy about him. Fortunately, in his case, he has the capability to be in main stream class.
I am saddened that you have chosen to paint LETNS in the manner in which you have, and to personally attack the principle.
LETNS has a fantastic reputation for caring about each and every child. Whether that child is in mainstream class or the outreach class. And I know they accept children IF it is that child’s best interest to be in the school.
I hope your new life is a happy one, and one without stress and education problems. However, I would like to say that as a parent of the school, it saddens me that you plan to leave the country (by your own choice some months ago) to further your career, but you are blaming LETNS for that move.
Lucie, we are saddened that the school has acted in the manner in which it conducted its communication with us, and the way it handled our application. I guess we are all entitled to our opinions and views. Because of this, you may consider this a personal attack, but we are talking about the school as an institution, which is run by the BOM and Principal.
The main point is, whether we are going or staying, that this needs awareness. LETNS has done wrong by not offering a child with disability a place in their school, despite the HSE recommendation to go to mainstream.
The outreach department is doing a fantastic job, but is not part of mainstream. The boy you are refering to is getting the support, because he has two parents who support and fight for his support too. You obviously think that it’s a given to get all the required support for your child, if the child has a disability.
Btw, I’m delighted you are reading my blog
I hope you are enjoying the posts, beside the LETNS posts 
Hi Lucy,
I think because you have had a positive relationship with LETNS and the B.O.M, who might have assisted you in all your and your children’s needs, perhaps even doted over your children, it does not mean that they have discriminated against Judgebrix’s son. I think it is outrageous that you are suggesting that Judgebrix might have used his son’s situation to get some media attention or advanced his career or some plain rubbish like that. That’s a grave accusation. You should read the articles again to get a grip on the grave situation in LETNS and do not be in denial. Just because the Ethos of LETNS is all peace and harmony and all children are supposed to be welcome there, it does not mean that it is actually followed and respected. This case shows grave personal bias and professional incompetence by LETNS school management towards a child with special needs. For your knowledge it has been publicly known that the child in your son’s class to whom you are refering to, have had to fight with their bare fists to keep their sons S.N.A. The B.O.M and school management have not been overly supportive in that case either, and it is just down to that child’s parents who are very “tough skinned” fighting their own struggel with the SENOs and Department of Education. They even went to RTE news to highlight their case.It is very sad that LETNS is getting such bad publicity, but this has been coming for years. The development of the nature of LETNS leaves much to be desired for.
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