Jude and Eva

A couple of years ago – Jude had recently started primary school – a teacher dragged him across the playground. No-one told his parents.

That night when Jude woke up crying, Eva, his mum, told the Royal Commission ‘we did not know why’. For the next few nights Jude ‘had nightmares and could not sleep,’ she said.

Jude has attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, anxiety and a physical disability that makes writing difficult and slow.

When the school told Eva about the incident two days later, she immediately reported it to police. She didn’t have many details about what happened and police referred her back to the school.

Eva spoke to Jude further, Jude’s psychologist, some teachers and parents. It became clear there was a culture of physical abuse at the school – most of it targeting children with disability. Several teachers regularly dragged, hit and ‘manhandled’ children.

Eva made a formal complaint to the education department. Her complaint listed the allegations of physical abuse adults had directly witnessed. She didn’t include hearsay incidents or the multiple incidents of emotional abuse.

Initially the department told Eva they wouldn’t be able to investigate all of the incidents because two of the teachers had immediately taken sick leave.

The department also told Eva not to talk about the complaint while it was being investigated because of ‘procedural fairness’.

It took five months for Eva to see the report. There were several errors and only two of the allegations were supported. The most serious allegations had not been sent to the principal for a response and had not been investigated.

‘No-one took our complaint seriously, but we were still constantly warned to remain silent and not to discuss anything with anyone. The focus seemed to be on avoiding bad publicity rather than actually fixing a problem.’

Eva spoke to the school’s relatively new principal who was also shocked. She contacted the department again and they began another investigation. Six months later they wrote to Eva advising her there was insufficient evidence to support the allegations.

Eva was incredulous. She was fairly certain the department never contacted the parents and teachers who witnessed the incidents. She was also aware the teachers never returned from sick leave.

‘We are not especially confident that there was much of an investigation. It felt like they were going through the motions to try and avoid legal action rather than any concern about the children's welfare.’

Eva remains disturbed by the education department’s response, but she said the school principal has been really great. ‘Given that we brought an … investigation onto his school, I have mostly not felt like he resented this or us.’ He was open, initiated training programs and introduced new policies – classroom doors must now remain open. While there have been some difficulties, Eva said his priority is the children’s wellbeing.

‘I am concerned that so much of what makes a school a reasonable place for students with disabilities is up to the principal – like they can choose whether or not to be welcoming, and there are no repercussions if they are not.’