A six-year-old boy with autism and Down syndrome was strapped into an infant’s high chair at a New South Wales primary school regularly over an eight-month period, his family allege, with the case now the subject of a complaint to the Australian Human Rights Commission.
Neville Williams’ aunt and guardian, Karla Bedford, said she first learned that the six-year-old was being physically restrained at Tingha public school in northern NSW after the school posted a photo of him in the chair on social media.
Bedford said she had spent a year helping train support workers for Neville at the school and, despite him having funding to attend school full-time with the help of two of those workers, he was attending just two-and-a-half days a week.
“Despite everything, [the school] refused to let him attend school full-time, they refused to let him go on excursions, they were strapping him into a baby high chair and moving the chair around, and he was stuck in the chair all day,” Bedford said.
Bedford said she believed Neville was discriminated against and the use of restrictive practices by strapping him in the high chair was “child abuse.”
“He was crying, he was so upset, he was refusing to walk to school and initially we didn’t know why,” she said.
After learning that the chair had been regularly used over an eight-month period, Bedford lodged a complaint with the school, and subsequently a disability discrimination complaint with the AHRC against the NSW education department.
Bedford claims that after the incident, the school consistently encouraged her to remove Neville, who is non-verbal, from the school.
“They were pushing us to leave but I didn’t want to leave the school; it is a small Aboriginal community and my son is part of that community and I wanted him to stay a part of that community.”
Bedford’s complaint led to a Professional and Ethical Standards review being undertaken by the education department, which acknowledged that the high chair had been used, but found his treatment did not amount to misconduct.
“Extensive information gathering occurred, including numerous interviews with a range of stakeholders and experts,” states the letter from the PES investigator, which was sent to Bedford in February.
“After careful assessment of all of the available information, it was determined that there was sufficient evidence that a specialised high chair was being used for Neville at school, however, the allegations did not amount to misconduct.”
The letter stated that “remedial action” had been taken as a result of the complaint and also requested that Bedford “not discuss it with anyone, other than the Director Educational Leadership, your support or legal service or me”.
Bedford subsequently requested a review of the PES decision, saying that the chair was not “specialised” or medically endorsed.
“It is a concern that strapping a child into a baby highchair for eight months, and not allowing him to play nor interact with his peers is not misconduct,” Bedford wrote to the investigator in February.
The case is now being conciliated by the Human Rights Commission.
The NSW education department was unable to comment on the case while it is before the commission. In a statement, a spokesperson said: “The care and protection of children is our primary concern, and all employees have a duty of care to ensure students’ safety and welfare at all times.
“We know there is still work to be done but we are committed to building a more inclusive education system, one where all students feel welcomed and are learning to their fullest capability.”
The disability royal commission raised concerns about the use of restrictive practices in educational settings, raising it as one of the “potential key drivers and forms of violence, abuse, neglect and exploitation of students with disability occurring in school settings.”
Guardian Australia has sought information from all state education departments about restrictive practices.
A spokesperson for the NSW education department said it “remains deeply committed to the national goal of reducing and eliminating the unnecessary or inappropriate use of restrictive practices in our schools.”
However, it said that the department “does not currently collect data on the use of restrictive practices in schools”.
Victoria is the only state that released data on restrictive practices, revealing that seclusion and physical restraint were used more than 1,200 times in 2022.
However, it did not provide a breakdown according to disability status.
Other states would not provide any data relating to the use of restrictive practices. A spokesperson for the Queensland education department said that records on the use of restrictive practices were maintained in individual student records, and “the department does not centrally collect this data”.
