Trace and Darcie
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.
Trace is a teenager living in a regional town. He has intellectual disability, sensory processing disorder and anxiety.
Darcie, his mum, told the Royal Commission she believes Trace has undiagnosed autism, but his school doesn’t agree and won’t support him.
‘We did an autism assessment and my psychologist came back, "Yes, we're looking good," and then the school crushed it and said, "No, this child doesn't have autism.”’
‘He misses social cues and the rest of it … The transition into high school has not been a happy one. Trace was failing. Since year 4 he has not liked school … He doesn't know how to deal with bullies.’
Darcie said other students take Trace’s food from his lunchbox to make him chase them. ‘He would come home in tears.’
Darcie puts sweet items into Trace’s lunchbox because he has an overactive thyroid. The school objects and takes regular photographs of his lunchbox.
‘If they have taken the picture in front of his friends, that's food shaming and that's not going to help him because he doesn't already have a great relationship with food.’
Trace often refuses to take medication for chronic constipation. One day Darcie asked the school to help him take his medicine.
‘That's when [child services] was called about the amount of medications he was taking. You know, it's kind of like, "It wouldn't hurt you just to help rather than to go ahead and just try prosecuting us.”’
Trace refused to go to school so often that the school called the police.
‘He had nightmares because he thought that they were going to take him away from me.’
Darcie took Trace out of school.
‘If the school won't help me, and the education department won't help me and him attend school and get to the school and get through this pathway, there's really no point.’
Darcie homeschooled Trace and recently enrolled him in TAFE.
‘And, oh my God, half of the behaviours have changed. There's no teachers growling at him. There's no teachers yelling at him. There's no teacher's assistant sitting next to him, forcing him to do the work and write and read. He is sleeping better. He is eating better.’
Darcie said Trace hopes to do a computer course.
‘His superpower is technology. He used to go in to the school when they were teaching computers. He would be leading the class.’
Darcie fears, though, that because of his intellectual disability, Trace will be ‘forced into a pathway to get [another] job’.
‘He is going to have to, one day, at some point, move to [the city] because there's nothing here.’
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.