Karla and Josie
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.
Josie told the Royal Commission about the abuse her nine-year-old daughter, Karla, experienced in a ‘special needs classroom’ at the local public school in the early 90s.
Not long after starting at the school, Karla complained to her mum about having a sore back, neck and arms. Then in the bath one evening Josie noticed ‘bruising on her back and arms’. Josie asked Karla if she had fallen over or if someone in the classroom or playground had hurt her. Karla told her the teacher ‘hurt her’.
Josie went to the school and asked the teacher if she had noticed anyone hurting Karla. She said she hadn’t.
Over the next few months Karla kept coming home with bruises on her back and arms. Josie asked her again what had happened and she told her ‘my teacher pinches me’. Josie found it hard to believe it was the teacher and kept asking her, prompting that perhaps it was another child. But Karla ‘did not deviate from her accusation’.
Josie went back and questioned the teacher. The teacher said she had been looking out for Karla and hadn’t seen any incident that would account for her bruising.
Josie found this strange. Karla ‘was a special needs student in a special needs classroom’.
‘She had high support needs and would have been well supervised, especially in the class as there were only nine students.’
They were also well supervised in the playground.
The bruising continued, and Josie asked the teacher directly if she was hurting or pinching her daughter. The teacher denied it, so Josie went to see the principal who said he would follow up.
While waiting for him to investigate, Josie spoke to some of the other parents. One revealed ‘her son was also coming home with bruises’ and a previous student also experienced the same abuse.
Nothing came of the principal’s investigation. Not long after, however, the teacher was transferred to another school. Josie ‘feared for the next students that were in her class’.
Josie decided to report the incidents to the police.
The police interviewed Karla and the other child. The children clearly explained what had happened and showed the police their bruising.
Josie expected the teacher to be charged. Instead, the police told her they felt it ‘would not be advisable to proceed to court because even though the witnesses … could tell what had happened in their own simple language, the defence lawyer would eat them alive … and easily discredit them’.
So the case didn’t proceed. Josie felt it was ‘a very unjust, miserable end’.
Josie would like people with disability to have better support from the police. She would like to see ‘abuse not covered up, nor the perpetrator moved on’. Instead they should be ‘charged with a criminal offence’.
‘To this day [Karla] remains a victim of abuse,’ Josie said. It ‘has had a deep impact on her’ and she still talks about her time at that school ‘with anxiety and fear’.
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.