Lockdown Kids: Mum on the realities of school refusal

Mum of three Billie-Jo Johnson says lockdown ‘broke her kids’ and five years on, she still can’t get them back to school. She’s hardly alone.

• Lockdown Kids: Watch the docu-series now

Looking directly into the camera, Billie-Jo Johnson doesn’t miss a beat when answering how the Covid-19 lockdowns affected her two children.

“I’m so angry. I am still so angry,” says the mum. “The way it changed my girls, well, it’s not okay. It changed their little personalities from not having that one-on-one communication with other kids. Not being around kids for that time. It was just horrible.”

Ms Johnson, from Reservoir in Melbourne, is not alone in her anger. Nor in her feeling of hopelessness and fear for what the future looks like for her daughters.

She shares her story as News Corp shines a light on the long-term impacts of placing the nation’s children into isolation in its four-part docu-series, Lockdown Kids: How to Break a Generation.

The series looks into the rise of mental health conditions, anxiety and anorexia, social media addiction, “posting and boasting” youth crime, and in today’s episode, the realities of school refusal.

You can watch the episode above.

Billie-Jo with her two daughters who she is still struggling to get back into school. Picture: Supplied

Ms Johnson, 44, is one of thousands upon thousands of parents across Australia who are still facing the “traumatic” toils of trying to get her children back into the classroom.

She explained how her two youngest kids went from happy-go-lucky girls who “loved the outdoors” to gripped with anxiety as they navigated remote learning and increased social media use in the first of many lockdowns in Victoria.

“I feel like the kids were forced to use social media as that was their only outlet but I really despise Snapchat for what it’s done to my daughters,” she explained.

“Before the lockdown, my girls would go on their bikes for a ride. Go for a walk. Catch up with their girlfriends.

“But social media, it has changed a whole generation and that was made worse as that was the only social avenue during lockdown.”

Billy-Jo said her children started using social media more in lockdown for social connection but it was detrimental to their mental health. Picture: Supplied

Billie-Jo with one of her daughters before the pandemic. Picture: Supplied

Initially, she could count on one hand how many times she got them into the classroom when lockdowns were lifted.

Today, she admits that it’s now been years and the experience has impacted their family’s relationship.

“I’ve really tried but what do you do when your 11-year-old is just crying and crying and saying,‘I’m just going to kill myself because I can’t do this’,” explained Ms Johnson.

“I really didn’t know how to deal with this. This was something totally new (for us as a family).”

School refusal is on the rise in Australia. New figures show that almost half a million students were skipping school regularly last year.

The Productivity Commission also found that two out of ten children are currently dropping out before Year 12. These are staggering figures that are getting worse year on year.

John Chellew, founder of the School Refusal Clinic, with his dog Max. Picture: Supplied

John Chellew is a former social worker who now works solely in helping kids back into the classroom from his clinic, Bayside School Refusal in Melbourne’s St Kilda. Since the pandemic, he has helped hundreds of children with his therapy dog Max.

He explained that school refusal was largely misunderstood as children making a choice about wanting to go to school.

Instead he said there is a physical and mental reactions that blocks their ability to return to the classroom.

“We take a solutions-based approach,” said Mr Chellew. “We work with the parents and the school, and a big focus on the child being involved in the process, in getting a back-to-school plan in place.

“And then it’s taking small therapeutic steps to do that. Often the first step is just a walk with the therapy dog called Max and a talk about how the child is feeling. Then there’s a varied approach depending on the child. It’s often not a quick fix but parents are given hope.”

Billie-Jo shared how tough it is for parents facing school refusal. Picture: Jake Nowakowski

The family went from being outdoorsy before the lockdown to being socially anxious post-pandemic. Image: Supplied

But for Ms Johnson, it’s the future she worries about. Her daughter is now 16, should be going into the workforce but without finishing Year 12, opportunities are limited. “It breaks my heart to look at her,” she said.

“The lockdown broke this generation of kids. I don’t know how we get them back. Kids have this anxiety that I don’t think any other generation has ever experienced. I just don’t know where we go from here.”

Have you or anyone you know been impacted by school refusal? You can share your story by clicking this form.

WATCH EPISODE 1

• ‘Never got easier’: The Aussie kids still battling post-lockdown anxiety

• ‘I rang and rang’: Family’s stark warning over daughter’s death

Coming tomorrow: Lockdown Kids: How To Break a Generation will delve into the spiking anorexia levels in Australia.

Originally published as Lockdown Kids: Mum on the realities of school refusal