SAVE Our Children! The failure by our government to protect and keep safe those vulnerable children in Australia last count in NSW is 700 children staying at home with covirt (Daily Telegraph 20 August 2021 (larissa Bye)not including the serious cases of children with covirt in hospitals …why are they not protecting them with vaccines - knowing what they see overseas?
It is with anxiety and dread that parents of special needs children always wonder how to protect their children from being harmed, even as adults in the settings where they are meant to attend school or have care without CCTV many of our children are harmed and cannot say what happened to them if they are nonverbal or cannot articulate statements to the police who needless to say do not listen most times in any case and fail to follow up adequately. When other parents of non disability or neuro typical children worry about about harm to their children, we parents of our fragile and vulnerable children suffer a hundred times more in fearing for their futures. When our children are sick or assaulted they cannot understand or defend themselves. With 7000 last year in NSW alone in incidents of serious harm in disabilities and not one prosecution there is no hope of protection for them or even justice. If our children contract the covirt virus they will not understand isolation, they have meltdowns or over the top reactions to everyday life situations that threaten them let alone to be put in a hospital room, the stress levels of parents of disability children are incredibly higher than the parents of children who do not have disabilities. WE have to support each other…
The pandemic now strikes out at children and youth everywhere and parents are feeling something of the anxiety and terror which parents of disability children suffer all their children’s lives in a world that does not care or value those with disabilities therefore discrimination has to be dealt with even in our government. Parents have to stand together in this present darkness that is assaulting all children right now in the world.
Katy Gallagher, the shadow minister for finance, accuses the government of failing our children in Australia an article by ABC news (Nour Haydar 18th August 2021) notes today, after her 14 year old daughter has been hit with the covirt and she has had to watch her go down with the virus and suffer. She herself has been vaccinated twice but her daughter has caught this.
There has been no rollout of the vaccine Pfizer to protect our young or even teens and yet knowing the Delta strain goes for the young - why has the government not done anything about it? This is not new this ‘fail to care’ attitude of the Australian government toward vulnerable children and young people.
The government only care selectively according to the economic benefit they see, and the only young people they appear to care about at present are those in private schools whom they prioritized in the pandemic now upon us. Showing a government of discrimination by monetary value.
Now we have a special needs school infected by the virus (Daily telegraph, Friday 13 August 2021) only down the road from St Josephs privileged who were vaccinated ‘by mistake’ how crass and sick is that? The children and teens who are autistic are among those vulnerable with disabilities the government promised to give the vaccine to first – apart from themselves maybe – including the aged care people and their workers. What about the teachers and students of the schools for those with disabilities.
The school, Giant Steps autistic school, has some students and teachers now infected – no vaccines had been offered to them by NSW Health as it was to St Josephs and other private schools. How selective and discriminating is this government? Those infected at Giant Steps are seven students and three staff members and eight family members. As the Autism Awareness Australia executive, Rogerson, said a lot of the students wouldn’t understand what Covid is, a pandemic is or social distancing, and that the school needed to stay open as it would affect them too much and confuse them not knowing why their routine had changed. Noted in the article Mrs Rogerson accused the government of botching the vaccine rollout, saying students with severe disabilities should have been prioritized. “The federal government stuffed the vaccine rollout so badly and we are having a conversation about these children, some of the most vulnerable in a Covid cluster…” She also said “In comparison St Joseph’s college up the road had their year 12 students vaccinated…yet not here at Giant Steps special needs school”
Noted a month ago that St Josephs private boys school, whose student boarders from rich families were vaccinated with Pfizer – 160 of the boys (The Guardian July 2021) before we ordinary Australians were alerted that this virus now would affect the young but were never offered the vaccine for them. In fact, the Pfizer was not available for those under 40 years old in Australia when it first was brought in, so how come the rich kids got it? How come indeed. The NSW Health department said it was an error that they vaccinated all the boarder students at St Josephs as it was just the indigenous were meant to be vaccinated but the whole lot were done. How could it be so? Is NSW Health so dumb?
Apparently it was also offered to another private girls’ school who were given access to Pfizer by the NSW Health department - another error? How many mistakes are they going to keep making on the contrary I think this was done on purpose with money on their minds Just pretending to be stupid they actually had plans. Give the vaccine to the children of the wealthy! The money the wealthy parents paid for their children to be at those private school and quite a lot if boarding there. Yet as the article notes most Australian are ineligible for the Pfizer vaccine if they are under forty! And yet it is thrown to the private school students and suddenly the year 12 students. This government truly is despicable.
There is a shortage of Pfizer and they claimed to be doing the vaccines for the indigenous at the school and yet the vaccines were taken from the country including the indigenous to suddenly do the year 12 students - Premier Berejklian’s token gesture of interest in the young but only those. The Pfizer was taken away from the indigenous and given for the academic students and now the indigenous are infected out at Walgett, apparently no masks even there, and Scott the PM had to get some more vaccines for those out in the country and the poor down in South West Sydney where all the minorities are being scapegoated for a virus that was allowed to escape from overseas people going to hotel allowed to travel into Sydney because Gladys allowed it. Sydney not locked down and the virus spreads from northern beaches to rich eastern suburbs. Still not locked down. Is that because Gladys and her friends all live there? Then it spread to South West Sydney suburbs and the Premier sent police on horses and army soldiers! These people appear to mean little to our Premier and she is so mean to them but not where the privileged of Eastern suburbs. What gross hypocrisy and then raving against the people of NSW as if we are naughty kids when she was the one who let this all loose due to her own policies. What craziness is this?
Yes the government has failed to protect our vulnerable children and adult children also on disabilities from the disease, has not even given thought to it. Failed with safety for our disability children not only from the covirt but from the possible assaults and violence on their lives all their lives – the government put cameras in daycares, schools, libraries and streets and shops to protect people but will not mandate them in disabilities classrooms, accommodation, day programs, group settings of any kind they have not made it mandatory so that the providers can do whatever they like to our children and our children even adult disability children are in danger of being harmed even dying in such places of ‘care’.
Now they have not given our young people with disabilities or even offered them the Pfizer vaccine against covirt knowing full well there was the Delta coming which would attack our young. How neglectful is that? Yes the government has failed its children with and without disabilities on all sides and all angles and children themselves are vulnerable and those with disabilities are even more vulnerable and the nonverbal completely needing protection as cannot protect themselves, understand the frightening situation, or defend themselves.
How much longer do we put up with this privileged rich take all attitude? The politicians often lie but they cannot hide what they do when it is seen by everyone. Apparently there were other private schools they vaccinated the students of as well months ago before all the children and young people started to rise in numbers of the infected. They knew, the government of Australia and the NSW premier, they knew all along the Delta strain of virus was coming and yet put the rich first letting the private kids be protected but not the others in public schools and not even the kids in disabilities.
For shame. They should be in trouble for that. How she can stand week after week telling people to get vaccinated and then not even provide the vaccine for our youth and children anyway? is despicable state of affairs.
Meanwhile in our hospitals in NSW Australia as noted in article by ABC News (Cockburn and Hanrahan 18th August 2021) children are crying for their parents because they have caught the covit and are in isolation in hospitals in nsw separated from their parents they are ‘frightened and overwhelmed’ and nurses are under great psychological stress knowing these children need comforting and want their parents but cannot have them. It notes staff are finding it hard to provide health care and emotional support.
An anonymous nurse from Westmead hospital said children were distressed about being in a foreign environment without anyone they know. Another article by ABC last week (Paige Cockburn 12 August 2021) noted that of the 2133 covid cases in NSW that 705 were under the age of 19 years old. Shockingly, more children are now catching this disease here in Australia, 1 in 4 cases it was noted a few weeks ago, due to its higher viral loading for the young, and the government had not made provision to protect them from the new variant even knowing what had been happening overseas before it got here. All we hear from the Premier of NSW that there will be more cases. Go figure. We need leaders with compassion to do the right thing and step up to protect our vulnerable young in Australia and even more those vulnerable with disabilities as they promised to do.
The UN Human rights charter Australia signed, makes the government responsible to protect its children from harm. The human rights charter also states parents’ right to protect their children and for those with disability children. This is near impossible to protect our disability children in all settings where they go to learn or be cared for without CCTV cameras being mandated to providers to stop the violence and abuse that still continues against our disability young but is hidden or not believed even when our children come home with bruises. It is wrong that the government fails to uphold its protection of those who most need it in our society and this must change they must do the right thing by our young and vulnerable . Parents have to be their children’s voice and raise it up since our children cannot speak we must do it for them, and fight for their right for protection and to have freedom from harm.
All the best
Anndrea x
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