Imagine you are sane . You share the same stresses as anybody in the community...possible more because you have 2 children with types of Autism as do other members of your family but beyond this you are mentally well and have a high IQ. Now picture this strange and insane scenario. The Principal of a school decides you are insane and that your parenting is responsible for your children's Autism. Now imagine being held responsible for behaviours that are typical of a child with Aspergers. Thats right YOU are responsible for their anxiety ,learning difficulties ,melt-downs etc because the Principal has decided without YOU the children would be "normal"....You might then begin to imagine how I feel except it gets worse .MUCH worse.
Imagine the same Principal receives reports from other Health-Care professionals that demonstrate your capacity to care for your children and in fact commend you for your high quality of parenting .Understand also that the childrens psychologist has had regular home visits. However the Principal is not convinced by these reports by Experts with the essential expertise. She knows better. Despite only seeing you 4 or 5 times and NEVER with your children she somehow has a gut feeling that you are damaging your children.Now imagine a feeling of complete despair.
Under the safe blanket of " qualified privilige " the Principal can inform Docs and the Police,her own staff and the DET that she genuinely believes you are mentally ill and that the children are at risk in your care " She can do this without a shred of evidence and the DET won't expect her to provide any . In fact if you complain about this horrifying treatment the DET will also proceed to diagnose you under the same safe blanket of "qualified privilige" and all that will be needed is for you to demonstrate legitimate stress at a very distressing situation. Show any emotion and you will be damned.
If you dare to complain again you can these be accused of aggression, villification and creating conflict and fear ....these very powerful and damaging allegations can be made without a single specific fact or shred of evidence. The DET can and will ignore your requests for dates,times,names and refuse to inform you with ANY information. Your requests for mediation with these unnamed staff will also be ignored. Can you imagine how I felt and fell ? I can't even describe it.
If you were not mentally ill before this treatment you may feel yourself teetering on the brink . You will certainly become depressed and upset and appalled and this won't go in your favour at all ,it will serve as further fuel for the DET to burn you with. Plead all you like but not a drop of compassion will come your way ! Interestingly despite the DET stating and insisting you are mentally ill and that the Principal has every right to say so you will not be offered any extra support or assistance...instead you will be ridiculed and treated with increasing hostility and smothered with the stigma the DET seem to feel that anyone with mental Health issues deserves !
Then imagine the ensuing horror as it dawns on you that even if all your children's Health Professional support you the DET can and will ignore them all and proceed to write a 30 page review about you that carefully omits any reference to Expert opinion that contradicts their own. Now imagine the desperation that sets in as you are forced to take your children to other professionals in the vain hope that the DET may listen to them. Abandon all hope now because it simply doesn't matter that you have paid $700 to prove to the DET that you not mentally ill.If the DET states you ,you are. They don't need any psychiatric or psychologist training.
The fact is I have Aspergers.I am NOT mentally ill. Autism is not a mental illness.I have a High IQ.I am eloquent and expressive but I fail utterly to read between the lines,I am a dismal failure at sarcasm and fall for it all the time,I am trusting ,I rigidly tell the truth and do not lie, I am possibly fatally honest , I am horrified by lies but I will believe you unless I know the otherwise,I am naive, I am shy but outspoken, I am most likely to make a social gaffe , I am an eternal collector of trivia, but why is this grounds for such appalling discrimination and abuse .......what happened to my human rights ? What happened to my childrens rights ? Under this blanket of "qualified privilige" that the DET hides behind you can and will be stripped of all worth.You have NO rights at all.
There may be "qualified privilige" but an abuse of such a privilige by people in highly respected and powerful positions should not be possible. All people should be held accountable for their actions. I have a letter from the DET that accuses me of daring to question highly respected Officers in the DET. I have another letter stating these people are beyond question......are they? I believed Australia was a democracy. Nobody should be beyond question. Surely it is my right to question anyone no matter what their position of power,authority and respect . Where is the respect for me ? Where are the HONEST answers to my questions?.
How can this happen in Australia ?
6 comments:
libertarian i agree with you whole heartly,there should be a industrial broom put through the Australia Education Department strating with the very top.They are the ones who need psychiatric help not us HONEST ones.
There are serious problems in education departments in Victoria and NSW and they do need a good clean out. We can all say it but it won't happen because governments are terrified of the education unions.
Anyone who had school-aged children in NSW in the late 1980s will remember the campaign against the Greiner government which wanted to overhaul education in NSW. Strikes were common and we were told how our children's education would suffer.
Libertarian are the unions going to take the blame when a student at carenne school gets killed or seriously hurt,because that is very likely to happen.
The unions will say that they weren't aware of it. They will say they were misled about the whole situation and therefore it's not their problem. Much in the same way the regional director will when the pressure is on her.
What is it with carennetruth and deleting her own posts?
The unions will say that they weren't aware of it. They will say they were misled about the whole situation and therefore it's not their problem. Much in the same way the regional director will when the pressure is on her.
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