Mother’s legal case says school expulsion ‘discriminatory’ due to disability
A mother has taken a Sydney Catholic school to court for suspending and later expelling her child after he allegedly struck a student with a pencil.
A mother has taken a Catholic school in Sydney’s northwest to court for suspending and later expelling her child after he allegedly struck a student with a pencil, saying the school unlawfully discriminated against him on the basis of his complex diagnosis including ADHD, autism and pediatric acute-onset neuropsychiatric syndrome.
The boy’s mother, Kathleen Jones, in documents self-filed to the Federal Circuit and Family Court, also claimed a staff member compared her nine-year-old son to “the Bondi stabber” in a one-on-one meeting with her following another alleged incident where he scratched another student with a pencil sharpener or a paperclip, based on varied reports.
Ms Jones, acting on her son’s behalf, claimed that following the pencil incident, after which her son was suspended and never returned, Santa Sophia Catholic College failed to acknowledge the “emotional harm” caused by a student earlier calling him a “retard” and focused only on the physical incident.
She said, in a legal statement released by the court, the school repeatedly “responded to disability-related behaviour with punitive measures rather than support” and suspended him for behaviour “linked to his disability (emotional regulation)”.
Speaking generally about suspensions and expulsions, the Independent Education Union, which represents teachers and principals, said it was a “constant struggle to find a balance between the rights of a child with behaviour issues and the rights of other students and staff”.
Unable to comment on specific cases, NSW/ACT branch secretary Carol Matthews said parents rightfully expected their child to be safe at school and schools were obliged to provide a safe workplace for staff.
“Members regularly report challenging behaviour from students as a major workload stress,” she said. At the same time, Ms Matthews said “teachers are constantly calling for additional staff to support children with extra needs”.
Australian Parents Council president Jenny Branch-Allen, also speaking generally, said while violence was a concern for parents, there needed to be more support for the “exploding” numbers of neurodivergent children in the education system.
“What we need to do and what I’m hearing from parents is we need more support within schools so these parents get the support they need,” she said. She said parents’ top concerns were over mental health and social media rather than literacy and numeracy.
Santa Sophia Catholic College found the pencil incident was “unprovoked” and involved “significant harm”, according to the mother’s claim, and recommended the child be put into a specialised education setting. Ms Jones believed no such appropriate setting existed.
When she asked for resources to be reallocated, for the school to engage with her son’s existing allied health professionals at no cost, or for staff to take neurodivergence training, the school said it had exhausted all available resources to assist her son, according to her claim.
Ms Jones did not want her son to return to school without “reasonable adjustments” being made, and the school again said he should be relocated to a smaller Catholic school.
Her son was suspended “for behaviour linked to his disability (emotional dysregulation) without considering his disability or implementing appropriate behavioural supports”, calling it “direct discrimination” in her legal claim. He was expelled from schools in the Catholic Schools Parramatta Diocese months later, Ms Jones claims, after she refused to remove her son from the system voluntarily.
She says “the exclusion from school has entrenched a state of isolation and fear” in her son, and is asking for an apology and $50,000 compensation.
Catholic Schools Parramatta Diocese said it would not be appropriate to comment given the matter was before the courts. It must file a defence by June 9.
University of South Australia professor Anna Sullivan, who studies the impacts of school exclusions, said the research was clear that removing children from school was not the best way to manage behaviour and the practice was illegal in most countries.
She said “the school or the system should have people to advise teachers in appropriate ways” where complex disabilities were concerned.
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