Dear Discrimination High...Joel Deane Ramp Up 7 May 2013
Last week Joel Deane attended a public high school open day looking for a high school for his 12-year-old daughter Sophie, who has Down Syndrome. What he found was a stark reminder that discrimination is alive and well in our school system.
Social progress, like beauty, is in the eye of the beholder.
For instance, we like to think that Australia is less racist than it was. Considering the heritage of terra nullius and the White Australia policy, there is some validity to that belief; after all, the Federation of Australia may have been founded on notions of egalitarianism and racism, but racism has since been superseded by multiculturalism. Still, none of that would have mattered to the four Indigenous Australians left standing by the side of the road by four taxis last week in Melbourne because of the colour of their skin.
The same applies to disabilities. We like to think that times have changed, that the institutions have been closed and people with a disabilities are no longer locked away from the world, but the truth is some are still living in institutions and hundreds of thousands are shut out of mainstream Australian life - treated as second-class citizens because they have a disability.
I don't have a disability, my daughter Sophie does.
Sophie is 12. She was born with Down Syndrome; it hasn't stopped her. She reads and writes, mucks around on the monkey bars, can be well behaved and badly behaved, runs like a billy goat, and is a budding photographer (her portrait of Julia Gillard was retweeted more than 400 times over the weekend).
Sophie will be ready for high school in 2015 and, according to all the professional advice we've received, should go to a mainstream school.
With that in mind, my wife Kirsten and I went to an open night at a high school in the north-eastern suburbs of Melbourne last Tuesday night. It was not an enjoyable excursion.
This is the email I sent to the principal, whom I will call Ms M, last Wednesday.
I've been advised not to name-and-shame the school for legal reasons. The reason why I'm abiding with that legal advice is that the soft-shoe discrimination my family experienced at that unmentionable high school is not unique, but endemic. It could be your local high school. I refer to that unmentionable school as Discrimination High.
read more ;http://www.abc.net.au/rampup/articles/2013/05/07/3753480.htm
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