Kris
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.
‘Children with disabilities were always an afterthought at my primary school and the worst part of it was that they never tried to hide this.’
Kris is a teenager and has Ehlers-Danlos syndrome, which makes him prone to joint dislocation, injury and infection. He uses a wheelchair.
‘I have experienced hundreds of micro traumas over five years or so in my primary school years that left me extremely depressed, anxious, isolated and considering self-harm,’ Kris told the Royal Commission.
‘I would turn up to class and the other children were excited about doing a certain activity … and nobody had thought of choosing something that all children could do. I was sent to other classrooms, to the office, or mum would simply keep me home.’
During one school excursion that was supposed to be inclusive, the school made the kids with disability take a different tour to everyone else.
‘Rather than trying to include everyone they ended up segregating people. That kind of left a lot of people with the wrong message, that this is what inclusion looks like … which is obviously not the case.’
Although the school had a support team to help kids with disability, Kris said activities were often planned without consulting them.
‘A lot of the time they’d … do activities down on the oval. I couldn’t do that because the oval was uneven and all that other stuff. They never consulted with the support team because mum would go and ask the support team, “Hey, were you consulted about this?” and they’d just be like, “No, we were never told.”’
Kris said every day something would happen in which he’d be forgotten.
‘They would quickly come up with something for me to do as I was forgotten 10 times out of 10. I became increasingly depressed and lonely.’
Kris said he never went on a school camp because the school never planned camps with activities that he could do.
‘The school was really stuck on the idea that because a location was marked as “wheelchair-friendly” it was deemed to be inclusive and that was all they needed to worry about. There was no thought given to other factors.’
When Kris’s mum complained, the teachers would ‘get angry about [her] asking them to make changes to their plans’.
‘During these times of being forgotten I felt like they were angry at me for being unhappy.’
Kris said he’s still traumatised by the experience, but he’s now at a private high school which is more inclusive and the teachers are ‘very open-minded’.
‘Even from year 7 they pretty much treated you like a young adult.’
Kris plans to study social work at university, ‘mainly just because of all the stuff that happened in primary school’.
‘I'm not going to stand for this. I have a very strong moral compass, to my detriment sometimes.’
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.