Eliel and Vicki
Content Warning: These stories are about violence, abuse, neglect and exploitation and may include references to suicide or self-harming behaviours. They may contain graphic descriptions and strong language and may be distressing. Some narratives may be about First Nations people who have passed away. If you need support, please see Contact & support.
‘Animals are treated far better than my child has been treated.’
Eliel, almost a teenager, is from a culturally and linguistically diverse background. He is autistic and non-verbal, and has intellectual disability and sensory processing difficulties.
Vicki, his mum, enrolled him in a special school because it had a secure environment and a good swim program.
‘My son would have got completely lost in a mainstream school … Back when he was five, absconding was our biggest issue,’ Vicki told the Royal Commission.
From day one, Eliel had extensive supports in place including clinician support, occupational therapy, behavioural management plans and a communication device.
‘He presented at that school with all the resources they needed to support him in his educational setting.’
Not long after Eliel started, he ‘took off’ out of the school grounds.
The school addressed the single incident but didn’t put a long-term risk management plan in place. Over the years, Eliel continued to abscond. One time he ran out onto a busy road. The school told Eliel’s education support worker not to tell Vicki about the incidents.
Then in year 3, Eliel started to come home with unexplained bruising.
‘There was an incident when he got off the bus with a swollen eye … He would have bruising on the back of his shins … He would have bruising on his arms in the shape of finger marks.’
Eliel’s behaviour started to change and ‘he became very aggressive’.
When Vicki gave him his uniform or handed him his school bag he would put them back in the cupboard.
Vicki asked the occupational therapist to assess Eliel at school, and she spent the morning with him. ‘You need to get him out of there,’ the therapist told Vicki. ‘He needs to be in an environment that recognises his capabilities.’
‘The final straw’ for Vicki was seeing the new swim instructor physically manhandle Eliel. He pushed him against the wall and was talking to him as if he was verbal.
‘It was nothing short of just heartbreaking.’
Vicki made official complaints but said the school and the education department dismissed them.
‘It was so condescending. I felt vilified, I felt ridiculed. I’ve never felt this way in my entire life, the way this principal made me feel.’
She felt her only option was to withdraw Eliel from the school.
The new school, which has a mix of verbal and non-verbal students, is a two-hour drive away. But Eliel is doing better there. He’s ‘like a new child’.
‘There's two big things I've noticed in his new school. You will never see a staff member on a mobile phone, and you will never, ever see a staff member touch a child. There’s no hand-holding, there's no pushing.’
Vicki would like an independent complaints body comprised of people with disability and parents of people with disability to oversee schools and government departments.
Disclaimer: This is the story of a person who shared their personal experience with the Royal Commission into Violence, Abuse, Neglect and Exploitation of People with Disability through a submission or private session. The names in this story are pseudonyms. The person who shared this experience was not a witness and their account is not evidence. They did not take an oath or affirmation before providing the story. Nothing in this story constitutes a finding of the Royal Commission. Any views expressed are those of the person who shared their experience, not of the Royal Commission.