By LEANDRA ROLLE

Tribune Chief Reporter

lrolle@tribunemedia.net

FROM public schools to private institutions, grant programmes to special education centres — every path to the classroom has been blocked for an Abaco mother trying to secure an education for her seven-year-old daughter with cerebral palsy.

Royaltee Newton was diagnosed with the condition at age two. She uses a wheelchair and needs assistance to use the bathroom — help her mother, Deandra Newton, said has been impossible to secure despite years of appeals to the Ministry of Education.

Mrs Newton said that while Royaltee received the physical support she needed at the special needs school — including access to bathroom facilities — the environment took a mental toll on her. She explained that Royaltee began mimicking behaviours of other students, including making sounds and gestures that didn’t reflect her own developmental level, which concerned her mother.

“Mentally, she’s very capable,” she said. “She can read and she can write. That’s not for her but children who actually needs that.”

She said her daughter has never had consistent access to a classroom.

She couldn’t attend preschool because of her condition, so her parents used YouTube videos and books to teach her at home. When she turned five, they tried enrolling her in a government primary school in Abaco but were told no aide was available to assist her in grade one.

She asked if Royaltee could instead be placed in preschool — but was told she was too old.

“So, they tell me they gon’ contact me when they have an answer for me. I say, ‘fine.’ Days turn into weeks and weeks turn into months,” Mrs Newton said.

Several private schools also declined to accept Royaltee. One finally offered her a place in a private preschool, but Mrs Newton was forced to withdraw her due to high tuition costs. She said when she asked the Ministry of Education for financial help, she said she was told her daughter was ineligible for a grant because the programme only covers preschool students.

Later, she enrolled Royaltee in a special needs centre, but eventually removed her because it was not a good fit.

Frustrated, she returned to the ministry last year and was again told no aide was available.

Royaltee was eventually placed at a public primary school. For a time, things improved — a janitress volunteered to help her use the bathroom. But in March, that help disappeared when the janitress left.

The school’s principal tried to assist by having a teacher help the girl in the interim. But that solution quickly unraveled after a fight broke out on campus while the teacher was helping Royaltee in the bathroom. The teacher was unable to respond.

Soon after, Mrs Newton received a call from the school.

“I’m at work, I get a phone call from the school, the principal. She’s telling me today is the last day for the teacher assisting Royaltee to the restroom,” she saiod. “You need to go and talk to the Ministry of Education and see what they can get worked out because we need an aide for her.”

She returned to the ministry yet again — and was given the same response she’s received since 2023.

Beyond the education challenges, the girl’s condition has placed a financial strain on the family. Every three months, Mrs Newton travels to Miami for $2,000 Botox injections to manage her daughter’s muscle stiffness. She said the emotional weight of the fight for access to education is even heavier.

“It’s very depressing,” she said. “She wants to be in school with children in her set. She wants to be in a normal classroom setting. She wants to learn and it pains me to hear my baby ask me every morning, ‘Mommy, when I going back to school?’ I said ‘Royaltee, we have to wait’.”