Rhea

Rhea was diagnosed with autism as a little girl. Her family didn’t receive any support for her treatment and the school system, they discovered, was ill-equipped to help Rhea get the education she wanted.

Rhea told the Royal Commission she had ‘bad experiences’ in primary school ‘due mostly to teachers who were not equipped in any way with any sort of knowledge on how to teach a child with a disability’.

‘I had trouble wording my questions in a way other than “I can’t do it,”’ Rhea said. Teachers would send her to sit in a corner ‘to watch as the other children received praise and rewards for good behaviour and doing their schoolwork’.

Rhea spent a lot of time banished to the corridor for asking too many questions, and for not asking questions and then not completing the work. One teacher kept a special diary of Rhea’s ‘faults’, ‘wrongdoings’ and ‘misbehaviour’.

‘This particular teacher even had the other students of my class “reporting” to her on my behaviour and schoolwork.’

In high school Rhea ‘fared slightly better’ but – despite being ‘high functioning’ and having a good grounding in most subjects – she spent the first year in the Disability Support Centre.

‘This resulted in a lot of stigma and discrimination by the other kids for being a part of the “Special Retard Club”,’ Rhea said. Within a year she was back in the mainstream cohort, but could never ‘shake off the stigma of that label’.

‘As well, come subject selections, I was encouraged by most teachers to take the lower level courses “because of my disability”. I feel as if I missed out on many opportunities during high school, and that because of my disability it wasn't even considered an option for me …

‘If nothing else, I would like to think that maybe, after this commission, no other child has to go through their schooling battling for recognition as an intelligent, functioning member of society.’