Aryan and Juanita

‘Nobody seemed to be able to help him, whether it be in the [health] system, whether in the school, whether the supports in the various agencies.’

As a toddler Aryan was ‘hyperactive’, his mum Juanita told the Royal Commission. Doctors diagnosed him with Asperger’s syndrome and recommended he attend childcare ‘for the socialisation’.

At childcare, staff couldn’t control Aryan and suspected he might be autistic. ‘They didn’t like how he ran around too much and he didn’t have body awareness and he couldn’t queue,’ Juanita said.

In primary school, Aryan ‘jumped from one school to another’ because staff and parents complained he didn’t ‘fit in’. They suggested Juanita try a different school.

‘He was just quite full-on, in the sense he’d climb everywhere. He had so much energy and he never actually deliberately would hurt people, but then he did just through his sheer physicality and his nature.’

Juanita said she could understand how difficult it was for teachers, but no-one seemed to understand how difficult it was for Aryan.

In year 2, Aryan was in trouble from day one and Juanita had to pick him up from school regularly. When he did attend, the school isolated him and kept him away from his peers – even in the playground.

One day ‘something broke in [Aryan] inside’. He could no longer sit on his own, and ran up and down knocking over tables and chair. When the acting principal grabbed Aryan, he hit her.

The school rang police, who removed Aryan and ‘locked him in a little room all day’. Juanita was terrified they’d ‘put him in jail’.

Aryan had to participate in restorative justice, but no-one ever spoke with him about ‘his side’ of what happened. When Juanita raised this, the facilitator apologised saying she’d got too caught up with the school’s side of things.

She told Juanita he was ‘never going to get a fair deal’ and suggested she transfer him to a school with an autism unit.

Not long after Aryan started, the person in charge left and the autism unit fell apart. The school later apologised for letting Aryan down.

Without support, Aryan’s behaviour escalated and his mental health deteriorated. He resisted intervention or treatment.

Juanita felt she had no choice but to obtain a psychiatric treatment order for him. The hospital told her police would attend, but she expected them to be a background presence.

Four police arrived and put Aryan in the back of a police van. Juanita asked to accompany her son, but police refused.

‘It was like he was a criminal, you know? This child was escorted out of the building. I have to say, as a parent that was really soul destroying and I was not expecting that to happen.’

Aryan’s parents didn’t blame police. ‘I cannot really fault what the police have done. They’ve tried to help. Some are better than others, but that’s life … It’s just unfortunate the system that they had to apply is not optimal,’ Aryan’s dad said.

At the hospital, Aryan was locked in a small room near the nurses station. He stayed there for about four weeks until a bed became available.

Aryan’s parents had to fight to be allowed to see him. Juanita said it was a punitive system – the goal posts always changing. Sometimes staff would cancel her visits because Aryan refused to shower. The next day he would shower but they still wouldn’t let Juanita visit because he refused to eat breakfast.

One time, Juanita found her son smashing his head and bloody hands against the wall, repeating, ‘I’m never getting out,’

‘I just feel that all of this stuff is just so traumatising for such a young person.’

Aryan’s last day in the school system was year 5.

Now in his mid-20s, Aryan isn’t able to participate in society.

‘He knows what happens when he goes out – he just gets poor experiences. And that just reinforces the bad treatment and discrimination that he’s had to date.’