Liza and Carol
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.
Liza has an intellectual disability and mild cerebral palsy. She’s non-verbal and has limited communication, so her mum, Carol, told us Liza’s story.
One day in the late 1990s, the manager of a nearby group home told Carol she had seen Liza, then nine years old, being restrained in a chair at her school.
Carol went to the school with a support worker, Caitlin, to find out what was going on. At the school they found a small red chair fitted to a wooden base. It had white plastic moulded inserts for feet, with velcro straps. Slots had been cut into the chair to feed through a waist band with a clip fastener. The school principal would later refer to it as a ‘seatbelt’.
Carol and Caitlin went to collect Liza, who was in the playground. Through large windows they could see Liza try to come to them. Carol told us she saw a tall man roughly grab Liza’s arm, stopping her from moving. When Liza fell, he dragged her along the veranda and onto a grassed area. He only let go of Liza when another staff member intervened.
Carol said she went to the police station to report this assault but the police told her they couldn’t get involved in education department issues.
Caitlin, who saw the restraining chair and witnessed the abuse, wrote a letter of complaint to the school principal. The school principal responded with a letter of apology, in which he referred to following up on the restraining 'seatbelt'. The man who had abused Liza, who was a teacher’s aide, also wrote a letter of apology.
‘And that was it!’ Carol said. ‘People need to be dealt with in accordance with the law. If my daughter was dragged in any other situation the police would be involved.’
Liza had to return to the school. The teacher’s aide went on stress leave, and Carol spent the next two years working on getting her daughter out of the school.
‘Violence towards a person with a disability should be a hate crime,’ Carol said.
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.