Cyrus, Anais and Colson
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.
Cyrus, who lives with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and a sensory processing disorder, is in high school.
His mother, Anais, told the Royal Commission that Cyrus is interested in engineering and computers. ‘He is self-taught and he has just got an interest and enthusiasm for those sorts of things.’
Cyrus struggled at high school and felt ‘lost in the system’. His school gave him an individual education plan, but some teachers didn’t follow it.
‘There was this complete lack of consistency about it and he felt blamed for his own ADHD. Like, he couldn't concentrate, and so they [were] all constantly on about him not concentrating. Well … are you engaging him? Why are you letting him sit at the back of the class? He's sitting at the back of the class on his laptop playing games.’
Anais said some teachers considered Cyrus ‘a pain in the butt’. Cyrus felt excluded. His concentration and behaviour at school deteriorated. Doctors increased his medication.
‘This is a bored student. This is a disaffected student,’ said Colson, Cyrus’s father. ‘That's why we find ourselves here talking to you guys today, because the lived experience is that those events of last year are connected to everything that went before.’
‘He didn't just wake up one morning and go, I'm going to do this stupid thing,’ said Anais.
One morning, Cyrus took a toy gun to school after another boy beat up one of his friends. Some students reported the incident to the police. Cyrus ended up in juvenile detention for several weeks.
‘They wouldn't give him his medication when he was first in, and that was when I thought, “Oh, he's actually quite lucid.” We had talked to him on the phone and he seemed happier, almost, I mean, scared … but just a little bit more able to talk things through and everything.’
Anais said it turned out that Cyrus had been overmedicated.
‘We thought he wasn't concentrating, so [doctors] increased the medication, but in actual fact what it was, was that they increased the medication so much that he wasn't sleeping at night, therefore he couldn't concentrate during the day.’
Anais and Colson believe if the school was more inclusive, if it did more to engage with children with disability, listened to them and made them feel safe, things would have been different.
‘At the end of the day, we just don't want anyone to have to go through this kind of experience,’ said Colson.
‘And it's not [about] what happened on that day. The problem is why it got to that,’ said Anais.
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.