Yusef and Tori
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.
Yusef has autism. About 10 years ago he started attending a special school for children with autism. His mother, Tori, told the Royal Commission the school’s model fails its students.
Tori said that Yusef would often come home from school with bruising and bite marks.
‘I became increasingly concerned that he was being seriously injured both physically and mentally. On a number of occasions when I noticed marks on [Yusef], I called another parent of a child in the same class … Her child would tell her the same as my child told me, that another specific child had inflicted the injury in a malice way.’
Tori approached the school with this information, but said the staff ‘became extremely defensive’ and denied any violence. They implied that Tori was ‘a liar and manipulator’.
Tori said that in the two years Yusef attended the school, he ‘received very little integration or inclusion in the mainstream school, despite the plan for him to transition to the mainstream school into year 1’.
For example, once a week Yusef and another student would go to the mainstream school. But they sat in a separate classroom, with a teacher and an aide, watching movies and the teacher’s wedding videos.
There was no meaningful integration or education. Any ‘inclusion’ in mainstream activities was always as a segregated group with the other children with autism.
‘The [school’s] model is to keep the children segregated and isolated and promote themselves as the leaders in autism. Further … while my son was at [the special school] he was provided with government funding in excess of $40K per year, but when he transitioned to mainstream schooling he was only provided with about $12K per year.’
Tori managed to find a primary school ‘whose staff and ideology aligned with our own’.
‘Yusef had a wonderful primary school experience at [this mainstream school]. Why, when they gave Yusef more than [the special school] ever could, are they disadvantaged in the funding model?’
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.