Pierre and Fatima
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.
Fatima told the Royal Commission she is furious about the way her eight-year-old son, Pierre, was treated by teachers after another student bullied and choked him.
Pierre, who has autism and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, had a meltdown as a result of the student’s actions.
Two male teachers responded to Pierre’s meltdown by physically restraining him. He didn’t want to go with them to the office, so they ‘grabbed him and carried him 150 metres and locked him in a room’. While locked in the room one of the teachers, who is a child-safe officer, screamed at Pierre.
‘They had a thousand choices in empathising with my son’s stress with being strangled, allowing him to remove himself and self-regulate. Instead they allowed their arrogance to get in the way and look at him as though he was non-compliant, making a scene and assaulted him.’
Fatima talked to the school, the parish priest and the local diocese about what happened, but ‘nothing was done’.
Fatima reported the incident to the relevant commission for children and young people as reportable conduct. The commission allowed the school to conduct an internal investigation. ‘Obviously,’ said Fatima, ‘the school came back with findings that suited their own agenda.’
‘I took it as far as I could and yet no-one will acknowledge that they could have handled the situation better.’
Pierre has now moved schools but still ‘has major issues trusting people’. Fatima believes ‘child-safe’ organisations ‘aren’t worth the paper they print their signs on’.
Fatima wants to see schools better understand and support children who are neurodiverse. ‘These children are being trained to believe they are bad,’ she says. ‘They are not, they need care and support.’
She also believes there should be an organisation ‘with powers to hold schools accountable to the trauma they cause’.
‘The school has no incentive to do better for children who need support … They take plenty of disability funding yet are not accountable on how it is spent and I rarely see it put into areas to support the children that attract the funding.’
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.