Lucas’ Story

Lucas has autism, Pathological Demand Avoidance and learning disabilities. He was excluded from school for hitting a teaching assistant. Although the Equality Act 2010 protects schools from discriminating against people with disabilities, it doesn’t cover disabilities that mean people have “a tendency to physical abuse”. Lucas’ school said this meant they could exclude Lucas, but Lucas’ advocate used Article 14 of the Human Rights Act to argue that it would be discriminatory to interpret the Equality Act this way and would disproportionately interfere with Lucas’ right to education (Article 2, Protocol 1). The school decided to let Lucas return with additional support.