When you drop your child to school, you expect that you’re leaving them in safe hands. You don’t expect to learn that your child has been strapped to a chair that was modified to restrain him.
This is Taree-mum, Georgina Maker-North’s story and sadly, it is just one of nearly 250 incidents of abuse or neglect of disabled students in government school have been reported since 2015.
The ABC’s 7.30 program reported that Maker-North’s son, Thomas, 7, has autism. He is non-verbal, can’t go to the toilet on his own and has an intellectual disability.
Last year, Tomas was strapped to two different types of chairs while at school at Manning Gardens Public school at Taree on NSW’s coast.
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“It’s something we thought was happening in the ’70s and went away in the ’70s and we don’t hear about it anymore. Since this has happened I’ve discovered it’s quite common,” she told the ABC.
Ms Maker-North requested a meeting with the school to discuss the chairs.
“When I saw the chairs it was shown like it was a great show-and-tell piece: ‘they were fabulous’,” she explained.
One of the two chairs Manning Gardens Public school called “Thomas’s chairs” after the school modified them to restrain him.
Ms Maker-North was appalled. But nothing could prepare her for what the school said next.
“The words that were used when I looked — and I was gobsmacked — was, ‘would it better if we got some more aesthetically pleasing chairs?’
Ms Maker-North complained to the NSW Education Department and received a letter back stating that there was “evidence to support that some of the alleged conduct had occurred” and “appropriate action” had been taken.
She said she did not know how often the chairs were used – but she suspects fairly often, possibly daily and for hours at a time as the chairs in question were referred to her as “Thomas’s chairs”.
This case is just one of nearly 250 reports of mistreatment in government schools in the past two years, according to the 7.30 program, which used Freedom of Information to access the government document outlining the cases. The ABC says the documents show hundreds of abusive cases across the state, including children being locked in cupboards, having their heads hit against walls, their arms twisted and being dragged through the school playground.
NSW Minister for Education, Rob Stokes says he is ‘shocked and horrified’ by the stories of mistreatment and through 7.30, he apologised to Thomas and his mother.
“I was shocked and horrified to see a device like that being used in a NSW public school,” he said.
“Material like that should never be used in a public school and I stand by that, that sort of device has no place in a NSW public school.”
Mr Stokes stressed he has instructed the Education Department to review current procedures and provide more training to teachers.
