‘I can't live like this’

A Cork teacher who suffered a career-ending injury during an assault in the classroom two years ago is now facing mounting medical bills with zero income.

Today, Thursday, marks exactly two years since Sophie Cole was left with complex regional pain syndrome (CRPS) in her left arm, an incurable condition that causes chronic, excruciating pain.

“In an instant, your life can change, and that's what happened to me,” she told the Cork Independent.

“I was in a class with severe behaviours and one day the child grabbed my hand and slammed it into a steel reinforced table. That was it for me, everything shattered.”

As a result, Ms Cole has been unable to work for the past two years and is now about to lose her basic €220 government support. When the assault first happened, she was entitled to just three months' Assault Leave Pay.

A GoFundMe page was recently set up as a “last resort” to help Sophie with her ongoing medical bills. It was also set up to pay for day-to-day expenses as she awaits news on her application for invalidity benefit. Her first application was denied and she is now appealing the decision, which will take up to 17 weeks.

She added: “I can safely say I have not learned to cope with it any better in the past two years. My pain is so excruciating that I scream and cry daily. I lost all my hobbies, my independence, I can't drive, I can't shower myself, I can't chop up my own food,” she added.

The GoFundMe will also help her to seek overseas treatment.

She continued: “I can't live like this. You just have to keep looking for something and I suppose that's how I'm managing at the moment; I'm holding onto some bit of hope that I'll be able to reduce the pain to gain some sort of life back.

“17 weeks without even the €220 a week, it's not possible.”

Ms Cole is also spearheading a campaign calling on the Government to amend current legislation around Assault Leave Pay for teachers and special needs assistants (SNAs).

She said, although it’s important to note that the children are never to blame, there should be far more supports in place for teachers and SNAs who face assault on a daily basis.

“When it comes to assaults in the classroom, they were covered up for so long that it's really hard to get it out there that this is actually happening daily in classrooms,” said Ms Cole.

“Schools aren't staffed correctly, there just isn't enough supports in schools and that really does lead to the high number of assaults that we're seeing. It was drilled into us that an assault was part of the work.

“Daily, you get slapped, you get kicked, you get bitten, you have items thrown at you, and we take that on the chin, and every time you'd understand that it is just a form of communication from the child, but at some point, the line needs to be drawn,” she said.

A My Uplift campaign started by Ms Cole calling for change to Assault Leave Pay for teachers has amassed over 3,000 signatures and she has gained over 11,000 followers through her Instagram campaign, Sophie Cole (@special_education_muinteoir).

Her GoFundMe campaign can be found under ‘Help Support a Teacher after a serious Assault’ at gofundme.com.