Bon and Catrina
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.
Bon, who is autistic, recently started primary school.
‘He was a wonderful student and loved [preschool],’ his mum Catrina told the Royal Commission. ‘I didn't believe that there would be any concerns. His intellect certainly warranted for him to be in a mainstream setting, and I thought it would be a positive environment to assist his growth.’
When Catrina enrolled Bon at the local primary school, his attitude to school changed.
‘He was hiding … He was in a state of anxiety, he was crying. This was five weeks into school.’
Catrina asked to meet his teacher.
‘She said to me to my face, "I don't have time to deal with him. I'm working with the normal children." And that's where things started to snowball.’
Catrina said the teacher put photographs on a school app showing Bon ‘purposefully being excluded’.
‘Other students are all sitting down on the carpet and [Bon's] sitting down on a chair staring into another classroom wondering why he couldn't be somewhere else.’
Bon likes his food in ‘a very particular way’, so Catrina would cut fruit into triangles for him.
‘[The teacher] would purposefully chop it up on him and I would request, "Please leave his food," and I would come home [and] he hadn't eaten all day because she had been messing with his food.’
Catrina asked the principal and learning support coordinator to move Bon to another class.
‘They basically said to me, "No. We're not going to move your child into another class. Tough luck. She is who she is."’
Catrina said the school had also promised a support coordinator for Bon several days a week, but ‘this didn't happen’.
‘They took funding for a support coordinator and spread the budget out over the entire school system. And Bon got 15 minutes a week with a support coordinator, someone who was supposed to be there to support and help him bloom.’
Catrina withdrew Bon from the school and enrolled him in a special education school where he’s ‘thriving’.
‘I've seen other parents who battle and battle and battle with the schools. And it doesn't end well for the child and I just didn't want to do that. I wasn't going to put him through any more trauma and anxiety in his first term of his first year of school. Hopefully he's got 12 years in him.’
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.