Marie Anne RODESCH-HENGESCH
Ombudsfra fir d'Rechter vum Kand
2, rue du Fort Wallis
L-2714 Luxembourg
11 April 2012
Unlawful discrimination of EuropeanSchool (Lux II) parents and children
Dear Ms Rodesch-Hengesch,
I refer to the above matter and enclose a copy of a submission that I have made in this regard. I believe that the President of the European School Parents Association (APEEE) has forwarded this to you and I would very grateful for your advice in that regard.
I am particularly concerned about this issue because I fear that, apart from the discrimination issues outlined in that submission, the school faces a constellation of circumstances that endanger the physical safety of the children affected.
Those circumstances, in brief, are:
(1)One term before the European School II is due to open, there is no safe public transport plan in place. The school has come up with a very vague plan to provide navettes that will carry 30-40 children aged from 3 to 18 to the Mamer site. Those buses will be supervised by a single adult, with no clear plan as to how the children will be escorted to their respective classrooms. The arrangements for the return journey to Kirchberg are even more ambiguous.
(2)There is a railway station at the site of the school, which government officials state is unsuitable for unaccompanied children aged under 12. Yet there no effective safety measures have been adopted to prevent access or use by primary school children.
(3)The current plans to remove maternelle and primary children from the Kirchberg site puts their parents under severe time pressure due to the extra commuting required.Many will feel obliged to use the badly supervised navettes offered, or will take the risk of sending young children on the train with older siblings. Other parents will do the extra commuting and risk having road accidents due to sleep deprivation.
(4)Such is the conflict of interest that has opened up between Lux I and Lux II parents, the parents association is currently in the process of breaking up and there is no effective voice to represent the rights and interests of Lux II children.
(5)The school is making last minute, ill-thought out arrangements to provide 15 minutes of care in Kirchberg for children returning from the Mamer site. It is also about to issue a ‘questionnaire’ in the last term before opening, seeking the opinions of parents on how the transport and care arrangements might be improved, as they are clearly inadequate as they stand.
I could provide you with many specific cases of how due care is not being exercised to prevent foreseeable injuries to the children affected by their planned removal from the Kirchberg site, but at this point I would like some indication as to whether you are willing to intervene in this matter.
I have received much support from other parents at the EuropeanSchool for raising these discrimination and safety issues, including from class representatives of entire Lux II classes.
I look forward to hearing from you.
Yours sincerely,
______
Gordon Mackenzie
Cour de Justice
Batiment T 1084
L-2925 Luxembourg
Tel. 4303 2696