Giavanna
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‘I even got told that I must be cursed, I'm a devil or something, because of my disabilities.’
Giavanna is in her 20s. She found out she was autistic in her first year of school.
‘That was when all the trouble started with my autism,’ she told the Royal Commission. ‘A lot of the kids really didn't understand me … and so I was an outsider. I went to seven schools growing up, all because of the lack of understanding, not just by the students but by the teachers.’
After her diagnosis, Giavanna said the deputy principal ‘targeted’ her.
‘She tried to watch to see if anything I did at school was something that she could call my parents on and suspend me for. They pretty much would message my mum and be like, “[Giavanna’s] not suited at this school. She won't get anywhere.”’
Once the teacher suspended Giavanna ‘for a whole week’ for ‘having an anxiety attack’ about national assessment tests.
‘I got kicked in the face at school by kids that were misbehaving. I got my front teeth smashed out, and she didn't suspend them or anything.’
The education department then ‘made’ Giavanna go to another school. They said it was her ‘last choice’ and put her in a class ‘for kids with behavioural issues … kids that just don't wanna learn’.
‘And they taught me kindergarten work when I was in year 7, year 8 and year 9. They refused to give me my year work … Yeah, refused to help me with anything. And they didn't let me go on school excursions because of my autism.’
The school excluded Giavanna from outings after she’d had ‘a meltdown’.
‘A girl was bullying me on the playground, and I got upset … They never let me go on school camps.’
Other students bullied her too.
‘There was one girl that was bullying me constantly. And I got chased around the school, and I would go to the support unit staffroom to say, “Look, I'm getting chased. I really need some help,” and they would just dismiss me. She threatened to kill me in front of a teacher … And he just stood there and did nothing.’
During year 8, the bullying got so bad Giavanna’s parents pulled her out of school.
When she started at a new school, a test showed she had ‘learnt nothing’ in the past two years.
‘My maths skills, everything was still at year 7 level. And so in year 10 it was mainly [my parents] helping me get back into mainstream classes, back up to my year level.’
By the end of the year, Giavanna was ‘fully mainstream again’.
‘I got to pick my classes for year 11 and 12 to do the HSC … I did a pathway into uni.’
Giavanna’s university lecturers were ‘so understanding’ of autism. She wants the same from school teachers ‘so the next generation … won't have to hide in the shadows’.
‘Because there's teachers going in having no idea of autism, no knowledge of it.’
Today, Giavanna has ‘severe depression and just a lot of anxiety’ and trauma from what she went through in high school.
‘But I’ve lived independently and finished uni since then … Even though those people at school told me that I would get nowhere in life … I managed to do that on my own.’
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.