Gilles
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Gilles, early 30s, is autistic and has intellectual disability.
He came to Australia in early primary school.
Gilles told the Royal Commission that schools in his country of birth would ‘identify any potential issues that might arise’ early on. A teacher or teacher aide would take him outside as soon as the classroom became too noisy and he became unsettled.
At school in Australia, Gilles would become more and more unsettled and teachers didn’t know what was going on or how to support him.
‘Aggressive coping behaviours were reflective of the difficulties I was having trying to fit in.’
The school suspended Gilles a number of times.
‘Then another incident or issue occurred, and it was a 20-days-long suspension.’
Gilles was finally assessed and diagnosed as autistic.
The education department moved him to a different school and employed a teacher aide to support him. But the teacher aide was only funded for three days a week.
‘It meant that I was only able to be at school part time … That was a problem I commonly faced.’
Gilles’s parents made an anti-discrimination complaint, to no avail.
‘They are not making the adjustments for the person with the disability to have the full potential that a student without a disability would find.’
Over the next few years Gilles moved schools several times, usually because he was excluded.
‘I had a lot of problems … particularly the triggers with the noise and distraction.’
Teachers didn’t know how to support him and his behaviour started to escalate.
An incident happened on a very hot day.
‘I was still quite hot from the lunch break … I was not settled and the teacher was trying to push to start the class. When she started to discipline me, that's when it started to go really bad where I sort of was throwing things around the classroom and I got very angry at the teacher. Eventually I was moved out, locked outside.’
Gilles was excluded.
At the next school Gilles, aged 10, was placed with students who were on lifelong suspensions. His parents appealed and the department moved him to another school.
There, Gilles said, incidents escalated because teachers didn’t follow his behaviour support plan.
‘They had the specific calm down techniques that they were supposed to apply, but then what happened was the teacher aide lost her composure and got angry.’
The suspensions, exclusions and school transfers continued in the early years of high school.
In his final years at school, Gilles was finally given more support.
‘I managed to eventually work out the education program where I was doing two subjects plus extra work.’
He completed high school, attained good grades and was able to enrol in a TAFE program.
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.