Blossom and Keira
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.
Blossom is in her early 20s and has Down syndrome. She loves horse riding and going to the gym.
Blossom began her education in a ‘full mainstream school’, her mother Keira told the Royal Commission.
‘She was quite a handful, but they bent over backwards trying to follow the behaviour support plan. They made up visuals. They educated the kids and the parents and got the kids working with her.’
However in year 4 Blossom’s behaviours deteriorated.
‘I think because it was just getting too beyond her,’ Keira said.
Keira switched Blossom to a school with a support unit.
‘That was hard for me because I just liked sort of inclusion and everything.’
The school assured Keira it was inclusive, but it wasn’t. The unit was isolated from the rest of the school and had lots of ‘locked up zones’.
‘It had a great big fence and locked gates around it. And the doors of the classrooms were all under lock and key. The kids weren't allowed to be a part of that whole main school thing. The attitude was so different in the kids alone. Like, they would laugh at her.’
Blossom was suspended ‘after the first couple of days’ and had to take a week off school.
‘For something really minor … It wasn't for biting or pulling hair or anything. I think it was her trying to abscond. And I just sort of was, “Oh, you've got to be kidding.”’
Blossom told the Royal Commission she often felt ‘upset’ and ‘stressed out’ in class because of the lack of support.
‘They did not help me,’ she said.
Teachers locked her in a small area outside the classroom for a day to punish her.
‘That was my area … I was pulling people’s hair. I bite because I am a bit stressed.’
Keira described this area as ‘a concrete slab’ hemmed in by a brick wall and high fencing.
‘[Blossom] looked like a lion in a cage. Just pacing up and down, up and down and trying to work out why there was no teachers. It wasn't playtime. They were all in the classroom.’
Blossom said teachers were cruel to her. They pulled her arms behind her back and ‘shoved’ her.
‘Year 7 was really traumatic,’ Keira said. ‘There was a hell of a lot of manhandling. [Blossom] had violent outbursts.’
The way teachers ‘grabbed and enclosed her’ gave Blossom the ‘feeling she has no control’.
During this period, Blossom’s speech and learning ‘just went’, and her mum pulled her out of school.
Keira said that once removed from the school environment, Blossom ‘blossomed’. ‘
She's really great now, she just thrived.’
Blossom now attends a beauty course at TAFE and wants to go to college next.
‘I want to do that, so you have … you have a life,’ she said.
She would like to live independently and have ‘a nice person’ in her life.
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.