Caging the Kids like Wild Animals

As reported on News.com Australia

Human rights activists and parents say the Education Department has not taken sufficient action to protect children in response to the case of a student who was locked in a cage at a Perth school. Since the independent inquiry into the treatment of 12-year-old intellectually disabled student Neil Moore, the department has ordered all schools to immediately assess all "low stimulus isolation facilities". The schools have been told they must consult a district manager before using isolation facilities, the child's carers must be informed, records kept and the facilities reviewed "periodically".

But parents and child protection advocates say the action is inadequate.

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Moira Raynor, a former West Australian human rights and equal opportunity commissioner who was director of the Office of the Children's Rights Commissioner in London, said she could not understand how child psychologist Jay Birnbrauer and the department had concluded that Kenwick School had not breached its duty of care in using the cage to control Neil's behaviour. "I was absolutely astonished ... given that detention is supposed to be an absolute last resort," she said.

Neil, who has an autism-related disorder and is prone to extreme behaviour, was repeatedly locked in the purpose-built enclosure for up to 90 minutes at a time between October 2002 and September last year. The enclosure, referred to by school staff as the "quiet garden", comprised an area of unshaded grass surrounded on three sides by a 3.5m-high wire fence, with a wooden bench but no water or toilet facilities.