It was when Robin started four and left the small village school in Korsträsk for a larger school inside Älvsbyn that the problems began. Some time into the fall semester, Robin refused to go to school anymore.
– He had panic attacks when it was time to go to school, became ill and vomited, says his mother Emma Rosengren.
Anxious situation
The school tried to solve the situation by giving Robin an adapted course of study. For example, lessons and subjects were removed so that in the end there were only a few subjects left.
– It did not help at all. Robin needs a very clear structure and it was the school environment itself that he could not handle, not the school subjects. The school became anxious for him, it was far too loud, says Emma Rosengren.
Got diagnosed in grade six
Mother Emma is critical of the fact that the school continued to implement the same measures year after year, even though they did not work. When Robin was six, he was diagnosed with autism.
– The school has never evaluated the measures that are put in place. We have always been told that we will have new meetings, that we will take new steps in the autumn and the years will just pass. Now he is eight and has one hundred percent absence, says mother Emma Rosengren.
The committee shall analyze the absence
Anna Lundberg (S), chair of the Children and Leisure Committee, does not want to appear in a recorded interview on these issues, but replies in an email that it is not optimal to remove topics for a student to solve this type of problem, but that there are occasions when it is an option.
Lundberg also writes that “Älvsbyn municipality has a clear action plan that describes how the school should work with problematic absence (…) during the autumn, the committee will work with analyzes of absence and violations, in order to constantly improve.”
Hear Robin’s mother Emma tell more about the situation in the clip above.