Source document: https://docs-lawep.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/1697634357227.pdf (Australia)
Inquiry into violence, abuse and neglect against people with disability in institutional and residential settings, including the gender and age related dimensions, and the particular situation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people with disability, and culturally and linguistically diverse people with disability.

I welcome the opportunity to offer additional information (submission 28) to support a Senate Inquiry into violence, abuse and neglect against people with disability.
I come to this issue from three perspectives: • The parent of a disabled child • A teacher of 17 years experience (internationally) • An academic researcher and lecturer in education and disability (University of Newcastle).

I would be happy to offer my expertise and experience in any manner deemed suitable to further the establishment of the proposed Senate Inquiry.
Parental Context We are a family with a 7-year-old child with complex disability needs, of a neurological nature: Severe Dyspraxia and Autism.

I have concerns of suspected abuse whilst under the care of Department of Education and Communities (DEC) NSW at Kotara South Public School Early Intervention Unit.

I also have deep concerns as to the DEC’s investigative processes and accountability of their Employee Performance and Conduct Directorate (EPAC).
Working in education for 24 years I now homeschool my child as I do not believe he is safe in the NSW DEC public school system.
All of the above is directly related to the support and staffing provided through the funding or lack of funding to schools to support children with complex, educational needs due specifically to their disability, and demonstrates a systemic culture of the physical, emotional and potentially sexual abuse of the disabled in public schools either directly or through the enabling of others unfiltered access to said children.
My son is mainly non-verbal due to his processing limitations with a diagnosis of autism/severe dyspraxia.

Only in the past few days in September 2015 has he vocalised direct abuse of himself by staff in Kotara South Public School.

This is in addition to observed and suspected abuse of children at the school, that the DEC has deemed not applicable to investigate..

He attended Kotara South Public School Early Intervention Unit between February 2012 and September 2013.
The two staff members in the Unit were the Special Education Teacher and a Teacher’s Aide.

Non-verbal, disabled children are the most vulnerable in our society, however the Teacher’s Aide provides the majority of support.

This untrained staff member (who is therefore financially cheaper to employ) caused such damages to our child that we have had remove him from the formal education system.
He is now home schooled and attends a psychologist and a Violence, abuse and neglect against people with disability in institutional and residential settings, including thegender and age related dimensions, and the particular situation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people withdisability, and culturally and linguistically diverse people with disabilitySubmission 28 - Supplementary Submission psychiatrist due to the abuse he suffered in the care of public employees, and the resultant ongoing stress and anxiety which has had a seriously detrimental impact on his speech development.
I would argue that it is through inadequate and misdirected funding and a culture of secrecy and cover-up at the DEC, that our son did and continues to suffer.

I would argue that reported incidents of abuse of disabled children in the public system is so widespread, and dismissed by the same accused public bodies that the time is now pertinent for there to be a Royal Commission into said alleged abuses.

Currently there is a Royal commission into the Sexual abuse of children.
There needs to be a Royal Commission into the physical, mental, sexual and emotional abuse disabled children in the public education system in Australia.

We need to ensure that Australian authorities: Properly train all teachers in diverse learner needs.

Properly and comprehensively train Special Education teachers in diverse learner needs (The Special Education Teacher continually had to be trained by ourselves to support our son, as she literally had no idea how to support his needs.
To end the process of using teacher’s aides as the replacement to fully qualified teachers.

It is the equivalent of using a hospital cleaner to supervise an ICU unit.

Teacher’s aides have no pedagogical training, let alone for the diverse learning needs of disabled children.

To provide proper pedagogical supports and qualified staff so that the systematic abuse (physical, verbal, mental and sexual) of disabled children stops now.
Improved funding that is ring fenced for the needs of the children is required.

Too often it appears that funding for education is disproportionately used by the DEC and equivalent bodies to defend and suppress allegations of abuse via EPAC and their media and legal units.

Such public bodies should use their funding to support children with disabilities and offer inclusion that is significant and equivalent rather than shallow or trivial.

It is a retrograde step to create additional support classes.
Through target funding to Initial Teacher Training and meaningful ongoing professional development of current, qualified teaching staff, children with neurological and/or physical disabilities can be successfully included as full members of their peer group classes.

My own personal research is revealing this.

Personal Case Study Systemic build up of abusive behaviour in unit due untrained unqualified staff members.
Violence, abuse and neglect against people with disability in institutional and residential settings, including thegender and age related dimensions, and the particular situation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people withdisability, and culturally and linguistically diverse people with disabilitySubmission 28 - Supplementary Submission • When he has had falls resulting in injury or fallen sick they have failed • to contact us In 2012, two separate grandparents found my child wandering outside the preschool grounds unsupervised.
The teacher’s were unaware he was missing.

The ‘childproof’ safety gate did not lock.

The school did not apparently log the incident.

• The Teacher’s Aide, with a supply teacher, took it upon herself to ‘cut’ my sons fingernails without my permission by physically pinning him down.

• Family members of those teachers were now casually accessing the classroom, failing to register at the school office.
The DEC has admitted that said individuals were not police checked / signed into the school, therefore the potential for sexual abuse is greatly increased.

• The Teacher’s Aide isolated, restrained and detained my son to eat his lunch, even although he has an extreme food aversion and medically diagnosed difficulties chewing and swallowing that can lead to choking due to his disability.

NSW DEC has admitted this.


• The Teacher’s Aide had removed the food I provided (through Nutritionists advice) saying that she thought it ‘wasn’t good food’, and attempted to force my son to eat food she provided, again without my knowledge or permission, causing even further distress to him.

• Although my son is non-verbal in that he does not initiate speech.

In August 2013 he returned from school "you are a retard" to himself, for the rest of the day.
• On Wednesday 28 August, the teacher's aide was overheard telling another parent her child was ‘doing it again’ to my son again.

As it involved my son, I asked the Special Needs Teacher about it and was informed it was not relevant to us as a family.

• Observed the Teacher’s Aide slapping my son’s hand when stimming.
Observed assault on a child by a Teacher Aide • Thursday 5 September: on arrival to collect my son, The Teacher’s Aide was observed roughly grabbing another non-verbal child, and dragging him with a tenacious grip across the outside play area.

She forced him to the ground and twisting of the arm on the child causing him pain and to scream out loud, followed with him sobbing whilst nursing his reddening arm.
Suspected abuse of my child • Thursday the 12th September 2013, I noticed two bruises under my son’s right upper arm that looked like large finger marks on his return form the Early Intervention Unit.

I had noticed similar bruising previously but was unable to ascertain if caused by a child or adult • He did not have these marks in the morning before going to South Kotara Public School.

• I was advised by the NSW medical health line to go to the hospital.
• At John Hunter Hospital, they noted, photographed and measured the bruising, which they believe may represent adult finger marks before sending a report onto docs.
Violence, abuse and neglect against people with disability in institutional and residential settings, including thegender and age related dimensions, and the particular situation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people withdisability, and culturally and linguistically diverse people with disabilitySubmission 28 - Supplementary Submission • He had no bruising immediately prior to entering the Early Intervention Unit, yet had bruising indicative as of that from an adult after collection from the unit.
• Following week other non-verbal child had similar bruising under the arm.

• Our son was locked in a windowless cupboard with the lights switched off.

He has started to verbalise about this incident.

Complaint Process • I wrote a formal complaint to the DEC Complaints Department with the exact, above information, dated 1st October 2013.

• My complaints were reportable offences.

• o o ‘Responding to Allegations against Employees in the Area of Child Protection’ p.11.
Assault against a young person: Physical assault is only reportable where it includes all of the following elements: It is an act committed on or towards a child; and It involves either the application of force to a child or an act that causes a child to think that immediate force will be used on them; and It is either hostile or reckless (a reckless act is one where a person would reasonably foresee the likelihood of inflicting injury or fear and ignores the risk); and a child fears that he or she will be harmed as a result of the act, though the harm does not need to actually happen.
o • EPAC chose to classify my complaint as minor and so not reportable.

• The Principal of the School investigated the matter and sent us a letter • • with a brief note stating that no action would be taken.

‘Overall, it was not possible to clearly establish the cause of the bruising to XXXX’s arm.

Therefore the Directorate will not take any further action.’ In the same letter I was offered a placement in a special school for my child.
• Other Child parents were also offered a placement when they complained.

They withdrew their complaint on receiving the placement offer.

• The Principal of South Kotara Primary stated ‘verbally’ that my case could only ever be considered by the DEC as “hearsay” and I was instructed to drop it and also contacted at home via telephone and instructed not to discuss these issues with other parents.

Re-investigation On the advice of the Ombudsman NSW I asked the DEC to re-investigate our complaint.
The DEC/EPAC have refused to do so • EPAC states there was no need for an initial investigation, and will not change that decision.

• No explanation of any detail was offered into the process of the investigation, nor any explanation for the multiple breaches of health and safety and eyewitness abuse observed.
Violence, abuse and neglect against people with disability in institutional and residential settings, including thegender and age related dimensions, and the particular situation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people withdisability, and culturally and linguistically diverse people with disabilitySubmission 28 - Supplementary Submission Summary I believe the DEC has failed in their ‘duty of care’ and their duty to fully investigate multiple allegations of child abuse and neglect.
If my concerns had been fully investigated, requests for witness names, dates and incidences would have been requested from ourselves but no such requests have yet been made, indicating a failure of the DEC to enact upon suspected cases of child abuse and neglect.

Instead they have appeared to focus their attention on threatening and harassing us on three separate occasions in relation to our allegations against them.
My concern is that all child abuse cases are initially ‘hearsay’ until fully investigated.

EPAC appears to instruct the schools, where the alleged abuse was taking place to investigate themselves.

Unsurprisingly the schools state there was no abuse.

We have contacted the following organisations.
All of who have informed us that it is the DEC alone whom investigates the DEC: • Public Interest Advocacy Centre • Solicitor’s Referral Service • Legal Aid • Disability Advocacy • The Intellectual Disability Rights Service • NSW Commission for Children and Young People • Ombudsman NSW • National children & Youth Centre • Children’s Human Rights • DOCS I believe that my case is potentially symptomatic of a systemic culture of abuse in the DEC NSW of disabled/special needs students, particularly those whom are non-verbal.
EPAC and the DEC appear to dismiss such complaints as hearsay and close any potential investigation.

There is no outside body that appears to be able to challenge EPAC on its findings.

Non-verbal, pre- school disabled children are the most vulnerable in our schools.

Who will be their voice?

The funding needs to be used to create an outside, impartial body to investigate all allegations of abuse.
Indeed I firmly believe that whilst funding is a key issue in the support of children, it is only a temporary solution to the problem.

There needs to be a change of culture within schools and the education system as a whole.

Physical prompts as form of behaviour management are being used in excess and given a ‘green light’ to allow untrained, under qualified staff an excuse to abuse children.
Working in academia, leading initial teacher training my son is now home schooled, as I do not believe he is safe in the public school system.

Funding needs to be focused to support children with a disability so that the discrimination of the disabled is stopped.
Under the Disability Discrimination Act 1992 discrimination on the basis of disability occurs when a person who experiences disability is: • treated less favourably than a person who doesn’t experience disability in Violence, abuse and neglect against people with disability in institutional and residential settings, including thegender and age related dimensions, and the particular situation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people withdisability, and culturally and linguistically diverse people with disabilitySubmission 28 - Supplementary Submission circumstances that are not materially different (direct discrimination) • made to comply with a general requirement or condition which the person is unable to comply with because of their experience with disability, and which leads to the person being disadvantaged (indirect discrimination) • subjected to the imposition of unreasonable terms or conditions on an activity • denied access to a place, activity or service • subject to unjustified termination of an activity • asked discriminatory questions or subjected to harassment.
The Act prohibits unlawful discrimination against people who experience disability and promotes an inclusive approach whenever possible, rather than the provision of separate or parallel services.

Until we fund disabled children fully in the education system, this discrimination will continue.
General statistics on abuse One in three children with an identified disability for which they receive special education services are victims of some type of maltreatment (i.e., either neglect, physical abuse, or sexual abuse) whereas one in 10 nondisabled children experience abuse.

Children with any type of disability are 3.44 times more likely to be a victim of some type of abuse compared to children without disabilities.

(Sullivan & Knutson, 2000).


Looking specifically at individuals with intellectual disability, they are 4 to 10 more times as likely to be victims of crime than others without disabilities (Sobsey, et al., 1995).

One study found that children with intellectual disability were at twice the risk of physical and sexual abuse compared to children without disabilities (Crosse et.

al., 1993).

Children may not report abuse because they don’t understand what abuse is or what acts are abusive.
Communication problems that are inherent in many disabilities also make it difficult for children to understand and or verbalize episodes of abuse (Knutson & Sullivan, 1993).

Those with limited speaking abilities have had no way to talk about or report abuse.

Only recently have pictures demonstrating acts of abuse and sexual anatomy been added to communication boards to help non-communicative children and adults (or those with limited communication) report acts of abuse.
A number of studies have found that different types of disabilities have differing degrees of risk for exposure to violence.

For example, Sullivan (2003) reported that those with behavior disorders face greater risk of physical abuse, whereas those with speech/language disorders are at risk for neglect.
Sullivan & Knutson (1998) also found that out of all the types of disability, children with behavior disorders and children with intellectual disability were both at increased risk for all three forms of abuse (neglect, physical abuse and sexual abuse) compared to those children with other types of disabilities (speech/language disorders, hearing impairments, learning disabilities, health impairments and Attention Deficit Disorder).
Violence, abuse and neglect against people with disability in institutional and residential settings, including thegender and age related dimensions, and the particular situation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people withdisability, and culturally and linguistically diverse people with disabilitySubmission 28 - Supplementary Submission Children with disabilities face greater risk of abuse going unnoticed if their behavior change can be attributed to their disability instead of the abuse.
Also, children with intellectual disability may be viewed as easily suggestible or untrustworthy, especially when the report involves abuse that seems improbable.

References • Crosse, S., Elyse, K. & Ratnofsky, A.

(1993).

A report on the maltreatment of children with disabilities.

Washington, DC: National Center on Child Abuse and Neglect, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

• Knutson, J.

& Sullivan, P. (1993).

Communicative disorders as a risk factor in abuse.


Topics in Language Disorders, 13 (4), 1-14.

• Sobsey, D. (1992).

Violence and abuse in the lives of people with disabilities: The end of silent acceptance?

Paul H. Brookes Publishing Co: Baltimore, MD.

• Sobsey, D., Wells, D., Lucardie, R. & Mansell, S. (1995).

Violence & disability: An annotated bibliography.

Baltimore: Brookes Publishing.

• Sullivan, P.M. (2003).


Violence against children with disabilities: Prevention, public policy, and research implications.

Conference Commissioned Paper for the National Conference on Preventing and Intervening in Violence Against Children and Adults with Disabilities (May 6-7, 2002), SUNY Upstate Medical University, NY • Sullivan, P. & Knutson, J.

(2000).

Maltreatment and disabilities: A population-based epidemiological study.

Child Abuse & Neglect, 24 (10), 1257-1273.

Sullivan, P. & Knutson, J.


(1998).

The association between child maltreatment and disabilities in a hospital-based epidemiological study.

Child Abuse & Neglect, 22 (4), 271-288.


Violence, abuse and neglect against people with disability in institutional and residential settings, including thegender and age related dimensions, and the particular situation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people withdisability, and culturally and linguistically diverse people with disabilitySubmission 28 - Supplementary Submission