Raylan and Mick
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.
Raylan is in high school and has cerebral palsy. His dad, Mick, told the Royal Commission that when he was looking for schools for Raylan, ‘the local Catholic primary school was an obvious choice because [Mick and his wife] were so embedded in the local community’.
Mick said the vice principal ‘seemed quite open to making adjustments’ when Raylan started school.
‘I think early on it had potential to be an incredible story of inclusion … where a school embraces someone with differing abilities and makes it work.’
Students also ‘embraced [Raylan] and welcomed him’.
‘It became apparent that [Raylan], although he has complex disability, because he was at mainstream school from the start, he actually didn't see himself as having a disability.’
When the school later indicated it didn’t have the resources to support him after all, Raylan’s mother, an allied health worker, offered to help. The school asked her to train Raylan’s aides.
‘She [also] spent a lot of time helping modify the curriculum, working with the education consultant, working with the teachers to help in the classroom. I think, in the end, that all that effort was not really welcome.’
Mick said the school’s vice principal ‘made comments that perhaps there are other schools or perhaps, you know, he doesn't really belong here’.
‘It felt like [Raylan’s] teacher didn't get a lot of support at all from the vice principal and was really left to manage a very complex situation on her own.’
Without appropriate support, Raylan became frustrated.
‘[Raylan's] nonverbal. He communicates well now with a communication device. [But at the time] he started to exhibit behaviours which, it was just his way of communicating that he was traumatised.’
When Raylan would sometimes lie on the floor to express his frustration, the school ‘just left him on the floor’.
‘At times I would go into the school to pick [Raylan] up and he'd be strapped in a wheelchair outside the vice principal's office.’
Mick said meetings to discuss Raylan’s behaviour and support involved ‘eight or nine from the local school plus the Catholic education office’.
One day, the school left Raylan on the floor for ‘four or five hours’.
‘[Raylan] came home … and communicated with his device he thought the school was angry with him. I think that was it for me. I really didn't like my son in a place where [his] distress was that great that he really didn't feel welcome. He didn't feel safe in the school.’
Raylan now attends a special education school, where he ‘thrives’.
‘The Catholic education system, I think it had potential. But it went quite wrong. [Raylan's] behaviours were not repeated [at the new school] … He really loves school now, is fully engaged and really contributing.’
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.