Leroy and Marlee
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.
Marlee is Leroy’s mum. He is in his early 20s and has intellectual disability.
‘He has always been a quiet person and he has a severe receptive expressive language disorder,’ Marlee told the Royal Commission. ‘However, he does know what he wants and what he feels. It’s just hard to interpret, and he needs more time to think about what he wants to say.’
A couple of years ago, his parents enrolled him in a vocational education program ‘to get him used to being at TAFE’.
‘And we’ll forever regret that decision,’ Marlee said.
Towards the end of term 1, Marlee felt things were strange.
‘Because for the first time ever, he didn’t want to go to camp … And then one night on the couch he said, “I can’t take this anymore. Here, you read.”’
Leroy showed his mother text messages from another student.
‘And what I read shocked me.’
The student was asking Leroy to send him ‘sexual pictures’ and many of his previous messages were ‘sexual in nature’.
‘And I found out that he had been assaulted in the bathroom at TAFE by this young man sexually.’
Marlee immediately contacted the young man’s parents and TAFE who said ‘the lad’ would do ‘a two-week course on appropriate behaviour’ and promised to get back to her. But she ‘heard nothing’ before Leroy began term 2.
‘I was even more surprised to find that the perpetrator was still in his class … As the term went on, [Leroy] was getting more and more distressed and he said, “He’s trying to touch me all the time.”’
Marlee took an advocate along to a meeting with teachers.
‘Basically, I got nothing … they would not take the other young man out of the classroom. And it became clear very quickly that the TAFE wasn’t answering to anybody … It was totally unreasonable for them to keep him in the same class let alone the same campus. Because the other lad had admitted what he’d done.’
Yet when Leroy complained ‘that he’d been touched’ or ‘the other lad was trying to approach him’, they accused him of ‘making it up’. They even said he was ‘making the other student anxious’. Leroy was made to feel ‘that he was the bad guy’.
‘They basically told him and myself … nothing was happening and to back off.’
Marlee met with the dean who suggested that Leroy move campuses.
‘And I said to her, “Well, it’s not appropriate because he’s done nothing wrong.”’
Meanwhile, Leroy was seeing a TAFE counsellor who ‘did more damage than good’.
‘She asked him if he was gay, and he felt the inference was that it was his fault, that he’d asked for it … It was very offensive to him,’ Marlee said.
‘My son might have an intellectual disability, but he does know his gender identity and he does know what he wants or doesn’t want to happen to his body.’
TAFE eventually gave Leroy a formal apology, but he ‘continues to be traumatised by both the assault … and the trauma that the TAFE inflicted on him’.
‘It's going to be many, many years before he is able to let it go in any measurable way … But finally having a proper job has boosted his confidence enormously.’
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.