Tuesday was the first day of classes for thousands of Belizean children, for many it was their first day in primary school. One child who didn't get to go to school is 4-year-old Doris Staine. Instead of school, Doris is home with her grandmother. Keith Swift found out why.
Doris Staine,
"Me love school."
4-year-old Doris Staine, who will be 5 in December, wants to go to school but she can't because no school will accept her.
Lisa Staine, Mother
"No school didn't want to take here."
The reason is because Doris was born with spina bifida - a condition which affects the spine by splitting it in two. She can move her legs but she struggles to walk.
Lisa Staine,
"She is spina bifida. She doesn't walk."
But not being able to walk hasn't stopped Doris from learning. In June the 4 year old graduated from Bethany Pre-School.
Lisa Staine,
"She does go to preschool and the preschool took her. She moved around like ordinary children. She did everything like ordinary children. The only problem is that she can't walk."
Lisa Staine applied for her daughter to attend three schools: Queen's Street Baptist, Stella Maris, and right here at St. Luke's Methodist Primary School. She was rejected by all three.
Lisa Staine,
"I have a child going to Queen's Street Baptist. We went to talk to the principal. He told us he would take the child and thing but when
we went back, he said he had to talk to the Board and thing concerning the child because she has a wheel chair and she can't move around on her own and thing and they don't have the ramp for the wheelchair move. I told him she used to barely used the wheel chair at school. She does sit down with the ordinary children, do her work, move around, and when teacher called her to give up the paper, she creeps and go and give the teacher her paper and the teacher corrected it and everything. So I don't see the problem why they will tell me they will take the child and then at the last minute they won't take her."
That's also the reason why St. Luke's principal Bernadine Pollard refused to admit Doris. She told us that the decision was in the best interest of other students, her teachers, but more importantly Doris.
Bernadine Pollard, Principal - St. Luke's Methodist
"Not to say that she is in a wheelchair and we are rejecting her. Her condition is one that we are not equipped to deal with here at the primary. Yes there is an inclusion for children with special needs in the regular primary schools but I believe that in all fairness to the child, to the other children, and to the teachers, we at the primary school are not ready for a spina bifida condition."
Pollard says that this new school building under construction will have a wheel chair ramp for students like Doris Staine but she says there is another problem because Doris has to wear diapers.
Bernadine Pollard,
"What happens when the child moves from the lower classes to the upper classes? She will be gaining more weight, she will be heavier, and teachers are not equipped to deal with that. She needs someone to take her to the bathroom on a regular basis, she will need somebody to change her pampers, and this we are not ready for at the primary school."
Pollard advised Lisa Staine to apply for her daughter to attend Stella Maris but they told her daughter was had no intellectual development problem that would justify her attending that school. So the school year has begun and Doris' older sisters and her younger brother get all dressed up in their uniform everyday and go to school but Doris doesn't.
Delsie Diaz, Grandmother
"She is smart and she is home and everyday she bawls that she wants to go to school because it looks like she likes school. She bawls and bawls and says that she wants to go to school because she sees her sisters and her little brother going to school and being that she went to the preschool, she likes it so she bawls that she wants to go to school."
Lisa Staine,
"A lot of children out here don't want to go to school and thing but I want in her school because all my children go to school, even this little one who is in preschool and I would feel more proud and happy to see that she is in a school instead of being home doing nothing."
And until she's accepted into a school, the closest 4-year-old Doris will get to school is writing in this notepad at her grand mom's house.
We spoke to the family yesterday and this morning, after an article appearing in the Guardian Newspaper, Lisa Staine got a call from Stella Maris School indicating that Doris will be accepted into the school. We also spoke to the caseworker from the Special Education Unit who assessed Doris Staine. She says a space had been secured for Doris from as early as Tuesday. Though Lisa Staine would wish her daughter could be placed in a regular school, the case worker says that given Doris' physical condition, Stella Maris would be the best school for her.
