Noah and Rosie

Noah is almost a teenager and is homeschooled by his mother, Rosie. This isn’t by choice – it’s because Rosie believes it’s the safest option. Rosie told the Royal Commission that Noah was bullied and abused in specialist and mainstream schools. Before the bullying started, Noah was a ‘happy, witty, energetic, fun loving child,’ Rosie said.

‘They were supposed to protect, encourage and build self-esteem, yet it crushed him.’

Because he is autistic and has attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and a mild intellectual disability, Noah’s first school was a specialist school. Not long after he started he complained of bullying, but the school said it was ‘all in his head’. Even when Rosie witnessed another child attack Noah, the school continued to deny there was a problem.

So Rosie moved Noah to a mainstream school. However, the school soon complained the class was being put into lockdown because of Noah’s behaviour.

One day when Rosie came to collect Noah, she found him locked in a small room. Rosie knew there had to be a trigger for Noah’s behaviour because it wasn’t happening at home, but the school blamed Noah and regularly suspended him. ‘I know my child isn’t perfect but [he] doesn’t act out for attention or for the fun of it,’ Rosie said.

When a teacher told Noah he was ‘a horrible person’ and ‘nobody likes him’ and that ‘even your mother doesn’t like you,’ Rosie realised he was also being bullied by the teacher.

Rosie said the school asked her to medicate Noah, but she refused. Instead she enrolled him back into the specialist school, feeling she had no other choice.

When the behaviours started again, Rosie decided to attend all excursions and events to figure out what was triggering Noah’s behaviour. She witnessed him saying, ‘stop it, I don’t like it’ or ‘you’re annoying me, leave me alone’ when the children did things he didn’t like. But Rosie said the children ignored his pleas and kept annoying him.

When she brought this to the teachers' attention they suggested if Noah was medicated he’d be more accepting of other students’ behaviour. Rosie reluctantly agreed but said, ‘It was the worst decision I ever made.’ Her happy, witty boy disappeared and Noah became ‘a zombie’. He put on 40 kg and the behaviours didn’t stop. He was often restrained and banned from attending outings and other events.

Then one day at a sporting event, Rosie watched a student hit Noah in the neck with a baseball bat. As Noah struggled to breathe, the aide laughed and said Noah probably deserved it. Rosie couldn’t believe it. Everyone had witnessed the incident, but still Noah was blamed.

‘He was standing there doing nothing and [that child] just hit him in the neck with the bat.’

Noah refused to go to school for a while. When he did return, Rosie organised a meeting with the teacher so Noah could tell her what he needed to help his behaviour. He asked for his desk to be moved to a corner and for partitions to be used so the kids wouldn’t bother him and sit on his desk, eating and dropping their food. The teacher refused to accommodate Noah’s request and suggested he sit in the utility closet or outside. They also suggested Noah’s medication be increased.

Rosie was horrified and decided to homeschool Noah. The school threatened to report her if Noah didn’t attend school while there was no homeschool registration in place.

‘Do as you like,’ Rosie said.

Noah is now homeschooled. Rosie told us he is off the medication and attends numerous group excursions each week without incident. He is also seeing a psychologist who is treating him for the trauma he suffers from the bullying he experienced at both primary schools.