Freya, Luca and Nate

Freya works as a support teacher at a primary school which, she told the Royal Commission, doesn’t believe in inclusive education. She works in the unit where ‘students with disabilities or behaviour issues are kept, segregated from the rest of the school’.

The students are supposed to be integrated with their class. In reality they might make a 10-minute appearance in their classroom in the morning and afternoon in a ‘token attempt’ to appear inclusive.

In her first year teaching in the unit she met Luca who was in kindergarten. He was ‘pretty out of control, running around attacking his fellow students and unable to sit for any length of time’. He was non-verbal and during the year was diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder.

When Luca was in grade 1 he was placed in the unit full time. After a while Freya was amazed by the change in him.

‘He sat quietly, did his work and was making really good progress. He is good at reading and maths, he understands what he is reading and can have good conversations with staff.’

However he was lonely and would get upset at break times because he had no-one to play with.

Freya told the principal she thought Luca would do well in a mainstream class. All the support staff thought it would be beneficial and give Luca the opportunity to socialise with his peers. But the principal and assistant principals were against moving Luca, so he remained in the unit.

Freya studied a masters degree in inclusive education ‘as a way of trying to get the principal to listen’. But the principal was immovable, instead allocating Luca to a class where the teacher did not want children with disabilities in the classroom.

It was clear to everyone Luca was bored, and his attendance at school declined. Freya found it difficult to watch him ‘treated as though he has an intellectual disability’ and see teachers give him work that was too easy for him.

Luca wasn’t the only student poorly managed in the unit.

Nate is autistic and mostly non-verbal but can ‘string some words together’. He ‘suffers terrible anxiety and can become dysregulated due to things being out of place in the classroom’ or if there is too much noise and chaos. Some of the staff have labelled him a psychopath, but Freya says he is ‘a smart little guy’ who is bored and forced to be in a noisy chaotic room.

Nate can become violent and has hurt staff and students. Staff often respond by screaming at him and handling him roughly. Freya often intervened and introduced ‘practices to help him calm himself’, for example through calming music videos and silence. She stopped, however, when she was told she was rewarding bad behaviour.

Consequently Nate became uncontrollable.

It took three staff members to be injured before the principal asked Freya’s advice. She showed the principal the techniques she had been using to calm Nate. The principal instructed the assistant teachers to follow Freya’s instruction.

Nonetheless, Freya says little has been done to really change the school culture.

Furthermore, she says that in addition to attitudinal change, the school needs major infrastructure work for it to be fully inclusive.

Classrooms are too small and not suitable for wheelchairs. Many don’t have breakout rooms for students who find excess noise unbearable. Play areas are not wheelchair accessible and ‘the school is not secure, so students who tend to run are not safe outside, so tend to be kept inside during breaks’.

Freya is exhausted from fighting for her students and has taken long-service leave. She is worried about both boys while she is not there, but says she has to look after her own psychological wellbeing.