Orson and Enya

Orson is autistic and has intellectual disability.

His mum, Enya, said he really loved primary school.

‘We had a wonderful principal who was very proactive in making sure students were included in everything,’ she told the Royal Commission.

‘Everything was pretty much person-centred for each child or student. They had their own individual learning plans. The teachers spent time understanding the students … Teachers asked us, “What are the triggers? What are the things that are helpful? What are your child’s strengths?”’

Orson is a visual learner and teachers included lots of visual aids to help him engage.

At the beginning of year 6, he started preparing to transition to high school. He was very excited.

‘They made a social story about all the different rooms they had in the high school. He was particularly drawn to the new music rooms and computer rooms.’

Orson was supposed to have several in-person transition sessions but, because of COVID-19, only had one.

On the first day everything seemed fine, except Orson’s autism classroom was upstairs.

Orson is very active and needs a lot of movement breaks, which his primary school had encouraged. But upstairs, he had no access to a safe playground space.

In the first week, Orson found scissors and cut his hair.

‘From then on, things went downhill.’

In week two, the school told Enya that Orson wasn’t coping. They asked her to fill in a questionnaire about his triggers and dislikes. She’d already provided the information but did it again.

The next day, Enya asked to meet about getting some assisted transport. There were several people at the meeting, including the counsellor.

‘One of the things she first said was, “I don’t think your son’s in the right setting,” and I thought to myself, “Had I known that this was what the meeting’s about, I would have asked for my husband to come with me or a support person.”’

They told her Orson had been absconding looking for the music room. This made perfect sense to Enya because they’d spoken so much about the music room during transition.

The school said the music room was only for mainstream students.

The meeting continued with school staff listing all the things they thought Orson was doing wrong.

‘He’s not safe. He’s doing headstands in classrooms. He's climbing furniture. And, I thought to myself, “This is not my son. They never said anything like this to me when he was in primary school.”’

The school suggested Orson move to a special school.

‘According to them, my son didn’t belong to their school. He belongs to an even more specialised setting for students who needed to be away from mainstream schools.’

Enya felt another transition would be too difficult for Orson.

She asked if he could have the adjustments they’d requested – movement breaks, a buddy and a quite space – but the school declined.

Eventually they agreed to let him have movement breaks if he wore a high-vis vest. But the school never followed through on this.

In primary school, Orson would point to a toilet sign if he needed to go to the toilet next door.

In high school, there was no sign, the toilet was down the hall and locked and they didn’t want him to go on his own.

‘At times he actually went to the toilet in the classroom because that was all too much.’

Teachers started treating Orson as a naughty boy, and he felt he was always in trouble.

The class teacher refused to complete Orson’s independent learning plan until they addressed his behaviours.

‘And I’m thinking, “No. You need to have the strategies in place and a goal set, so that he can learn, so that he’s not bored to tears, so he’s not displaying these behaviours.”’

At the end of term 2, Enya pulled Orson out of school.

He now attends distance education from home. He is happier, but it is challenging for Enya and the family.