Kelly Vincent – RPH Interview on the treatment of people with disabilities in the education system
08/04/2015
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Announcer: On 1197AM 5RPH and digital radio it’s Question Time; a discussion with the decision makers.
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Hans Reimer: And it’s great to welcome Dignity for Disability MLC Kelly Vincent to Question Time once again. Good evening, Kelly.
Kelly Vincent: Hi, Hans. How are things?
Hans Reimer: Look, fine, thank you very much, but we heard a shocking story last week about a boy with autism that was placed in a cage-like structure at a school in Canberra. Apart from the story being really quite bizarre, it was a horrible story; do you think that there’s anything like that happening in South Australia?
Kelly Vincent: Well certainly it’s a shocking and appalling story. It’s terrible to think that this is happening anywhere in modern 21st Century Australia really Hans, isn’t it? But unfortunately we are aware of students here in South Australia, students with disabilities, in similar circumstances and my office receives regular calls with parents explaining situations where their child might be being excluded from school, or suspended from school, or told that they can only come to school part-time because of a lack of resources to support the student at school full-time. We’re also aware of cases where schools aren’t safe for students with some behaviours; it might be due to a lack of fencing, which might be a problem if a student has issues with running and a lack of road safety. We also have a high rate of home schooling in South Australia, particularly for kids with autism, which is interesting because that, I think, suggests that there are a lot of problems with the public education system for these students. So some individual cases include a 7 year old student with Down Syndrome being suspended for lying on the ground when she felt unwell, she was then pulled up by a staff member of the school, against her will, up to her feet, we’re aware of a 13 year old student with autism being assaulted, hit around the neck and shoulders by a replacement teacher, because he didn’t follow instructions, and we’re led to believe that’s because he didn’t follow instructions, we’re also aware of a young student with autism being filmed by staff when they were having an emotional breakdown, meltdown. So this is just some of the examples that we’re aware of that show that our schools are not properly resourced and properly trained when it comes to respecting and promoting the basic human rights and safety of students with disabilities.
Hans Reimer: Look, is there a broader issue here? I mean, being a bit of a devil’s advocate, if a child’s misbehaving, is there ever a cause to restrain them in a cage-like structure for their welfare and also the welfare of others in the area?
Kelly Vincent: Well look, Hans, you’re certainly not the only person to raise that point, it’s been disappointing to see lots of people in the public forum making those sorts of comments, but my short answer would be, “No, it’s not necessary.” Instead of labelling, continuing to label these students as bad, or lazy, or ill-behaved, or whatever it might be that we like to think, we need to move beyond that and have a mature discussion, and an honest discussion, about what the barriers are that we are putting in place for these children, and how we can better redirect our training and resources to support these children rather than saying, “This is not our problem that the child behaves this way,” because whether you like it or not, when a child is at school, whether they have a disability or not, they are under the duty of care of that school, and so we need to ensure that teachers and other staff in schools and other appropriate settings, relevant settings I should say, are adequately resourced and trained to have other methods that they can implement, rather than this barbaric, inappropriate measure. And it might be simple things, like having an activity room where students that feel close to having an emotional episode, if you will, might go into an activity room and do some things to relax themselves, or even just to be taken for a walk, or to know that there is somebody safe that I can talk to, all of these things are very simple, and we need to instate in our education staff the fact that these extreme measures are not appropriate, and there are lots of simple things they can do to avoid these terrible situations.
Hans Reimer: So what does Dignity for Disability suggest as a solution? I mean, do the teachers need more training say, in our education system?
Kelly Vincent: Look that’s certainly one of the things that I think is vital to this, and that’s why Dignity for Disability is looking at a Parliamentary Inquiry once Parliament resumes in May to enquire into these issues, because as we did with the Access to the Justice System Inquiry around the justice system people with disabilities, I think it’s really important to get those real life stories of what is happening to these students and their families and how the system is currently failing them, and what are the measures we can take to improve on that. So we’re looking at setting up a cross-party committee of the Parliament and we’re looking at hosting a public forum here in Parliament House for parents and advocates to come and talk about their experiences and their issues as well, so we’ll certainly keep you and your listeners informed as to those, that committee and that public meeting that we’ll set up soon.
Hans Reimer: Dignity for Disability MLC Kelly Vincent,
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Hans Reimer: once again, thank you for coming on Question Time.
Kelly Vincent: Thanks, Hans, that’s a pleasure
Announcer: Be listening at the same time next week for Question Time; a discussion with the decision makers on 1197AM 5RPH and digital radio.
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