Oscar and Myles
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.
‘It is disappointing that in the 21st century the quality of public education comes down to the capacity of leadership of individual principals and the culture they establish at their schools.’
Myles wrote to the Royal Commission about the experiences of his eight-year-old son, Oscar, in two different schools in the public school system – each with very different approaches and results.
Oscar was diagnosed with autism at an early age, so he was ready to start primary school with an NDIS package and a care plan. Despite this, the school’s management of Oscar’s autism was disappointing.
‘For example’, said Myles, ‘his care plan included having a tepee in the classroom as a safe zone for him to self-regulate when it was needed, but we discovered it had been blocked with equipment’.
The student support officer funded to support Oscar appeared dismissive of the very idea of autism, ‘rolling his eyes’ when it was discussed. He would ‘repeatedly create situations contrary to [Oscar’s] management plan which created anxiety for him’.
Oscar’s parents offered to pay to have someone from the state autism organisation to come and attend class and provide advice to the school and his teacher about how they could better accommodate Oscar. The school wasn’t interested.
Instead, the school arranged an ‘observer’ from the department of education. The observer documented examples of Oscar being ‘included’. These consisted of Oscar being made to do the same things as everyone else in the class – for example, sitting down in group time instead of following his long-established routine of not sitting down.
‘We raised that this is not inclusion but … not including his needs … it is objectionable that a trained professional considers this “inclusion”.’
One day at school, Oscar was assaulted by a parent. He immediately began having multiple daily toileting accidents and began running away from the school.
His parents raised this regression with the school, and the school reported to them that Oscar was becoming more disruptive in class. The school refused to acknowledge any connection with the assault.
Things escalated from there. Multiple ‘run away attempts strategies’ were put in place to keep Oscar at school, including calling the police. On one occasion Myles ‘turned up at school [to] find two officers holding a six-year-old spread-eagle who was screaming’.
‘He subsequently advised me he had a bad opinion of police because they hurt him,’ said Myles.
During this period Oscar’s parents had been asking the school to provide support for Oscar to overcome the assault. The school would offer no support, not even through the school chaplain, nor would the department of education.
Meanwhile, Oscar was struggling to cope and started to hit school staff when he was agitated by a situation. The school began suspending him.
Oscar had never exhibited this behaviour before and Myles sought to understand what was causing him to lash out ‘for no reason’, as the school claimed. It turned out staff were preventing him from executing his strategies to reduce his stress and self-regulate.
‘I actually said to them perhaps he is hitting now because he has asked for help and tried to help himself and this is his last resort at protecting himself because no-one has helped him.’
A school executive staff member admitted that suspension was partly a means to secure funding for increased support. Yet when a new staff member introduced themselves as Oscar’s new student support officer, it turned out they knew nothing about Oscar’s autism or management plan, and had no training in autism.
During this period of exclusion, Oscar’s parents identified another public school with a more supportive program for kids like Oscar.
Myles said that since starting at his new school there have been no incidents and Oscar has learnt more in a couple of months than he learnt in more than a year at the previous school.
‘In a blunt assessment a whole year of his life which should have been early investment to get him on the right trajectory was wasted.’
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.