AUTISTIC BOY'S FAMILY RUINED; They're facing EUR400k legal bill after losing fight to keep special tuition for their son.

Byline: BY VICTORIA MURPHY 

THE anxious parents of an autistic boy are facing a EUR400,000 legal bill after losing a High Court battle to keep the education he needs to lead a normal life.

Simon McDonnell, 12, from Clontarf, North Dublin, was diagnosed with autism when he was nearly four and started school in a specialneeds class of just six children.

But he still couldn't speak or sit down properly until his worried parents Mick and Mercedes discovered home-based one-on-one Applied Behavioural Analysis tuition in 2000.

Five years later - despite massive developments in Simon's learning - the Department of Education told the family they would be pulling the grant that paid for the ABA and all future home tuition.

And when Mick and Mercedes took the case to court to fight for Simon's education they lost. They now have to fork out EUR22,000 a year for his classes as well as hundreds of thousands to cover the state's legal costs.

Heartbroken Mick said yesterday: "They won, we lost, it's as simple as that and according to normal precedent we have to pay costs.

"This could be anything from EUR100,000 to EUR400,000 and if we appeal and lose it could go up to millions.

"We haven't a clue yet and we're terrified because they might have to take a judgment against the house and we could lose our home.

"We've worked out if we have to pay legal costs and carry on paying the tuition fees we would have to earn more than EUR52,000 a year just to stand still.

"We've already taken out a loan to pay for his tuition since they stopped paying in March 2006.

"It's devastating because we only want Simon to have the best education."

Mum Mercedes added: "He didn't know who we were in the early days.

"We used to have pictures of all the family with our names and he used to match mummy, daddy because he didn't know our names.

"But when we found ABA he was amazing and completely different.

"We got a home tuition grant and we were given nine hours a week so we hired two tutors who came in Monday to Friday and worked with Simon on a one-to-one basis.

Mick said: "Although he was getting a lot of attention at school he wasn't capable of receiving it properly.

"He had a really short attention span. He wouldn't listen. At that early stage he couldn't talk, he couldn't take direction. His improvement from his early school days was really very poor.

"But with ABA we noticed it straight away."

But Mick added thanks to home tuition Simon now has every chance of leading a normal life.

He said: "His chronological age is 12 and his mental age is about 10.5 so he's very close to what he should be.

"He's still making phenomenal progress. He's extremely literate. He would talk the legs off a donkey."

Mick said: "Although we lost our case the judge agreed the state has responsibilities for children with special needs.

"So there were some points of law that were ruled that will help other families with autistic children.

Mercedes said: "We don't have any regrets about fighting this.

Mick added: "We couldn't look Simon in the face if we hadn't gone to court."

He's making phenomenal progress. He could talk the hind legs off a donkey

SIMON'S DAD

How condition appears

AUTISM affects normal development of the brain, social interaction and communication, with first signs usually appearing before the age of three. Five per cent of autistic people have incredible talents.

Symptoms include a flat expression, seeming not to understand word meanings, appearing deaf, pulling away when touched

CAPTION(S):

DEVOTED Mick and Mercedes McDonnell with Simon yesterday. Picture: ARTHUR CARRON/COLLINS; SPECIAL NEEDS Simon McDonnell, 12, who suffers with Autism; LITERATE Simon at work on computer