Acknowledgements endorsements Background methodology executive Summary 11 Recommendations 22 Article — general obligations 38

Restrictive Practices, Bullying and Inappropriate Discipline

443. 
     There is significant concern about the use of restrictive practices in both ‘special’ and mainstream schools, with reports across Australia that children are being tied to chairs, locked in isolation rooms, being physically restrained and penned in outside areas.⁴⁸¹ (See also Articles 15 and 16)
     
444. 
     Students with disability in mainstream schools experience higher levels of bullying than other students. (See also Article 16) There is a lack of support measures to deal with and prevent occurrences of bullying against students with disability, such as the provision of support in the playground and classroom, and teacher training to appropriately manage social interactions and respond to bullying.⁴⁸² Bullying is often a significant factor for decisions made by many parents to send their children to ‘special’ schools.
     
445. 
     Students with disability face disciplinary action at rates disproportionate to other students. Behaviours that may be characteristics of a student’s impairment are viewed as disciplinary issues and dealt with inappropriately. Discipline can exacerbate the behaviour and often leads to students being suspended or expelled.⁴⁸³ There is little attempt to understand specific types of behaviour, communication techniques, or to investigate external factors for ‘challenging behaviour’.⁴⁸⁴
     

Case Study

Jared is 10 and to date has attended three different primary schools and spent more than half his school career on suspension. One example of the problems faced at school was that Jared was being suspended for swearing at a teacher, often before 9.30am, when he was angry or frustrated. Nothing was done to find out why Jared was behaving in this way or to calm him down when he arrived at school angry and frustrated. It turned out that Jared was having problems with another child in the taxi on the way to school. The school failed to recognise his conduct was part of his impairment and communication style. No attempts had been made to understand why Jared was acting the way he was and there was no individualised program with specific targets and strategies. Jared’s mother eventually withdrew Jared from the school to home-school him. A new welfare officer was finally allocated to Jared who quickly realised the misconduct was due to lack of individualised management strategies and that suspension was not an appropriate strategy. Jared is now planning to return to school.⁴⁸⁵