When one is harmed all are harmed...A kind of justice from Royal commission but not the law system...
I saw a while ago that there has been a mother who had tried to start a petition after she was shocked by her son being hurt in care that he came home with bruises a little boy. She did not continue that as it seems no parents were willing to get involved or support her cause. Yet we are all part of each other in this situation – when one hurts we all hurt - when one of our children dies or one of our children is harmed then all of us are affected, because it could happen to any of our vulnerable precious children. We parents, and families of those who have a disability can turn our backs on each other, but we are part of one another, as a community with children who have been born with a disability and potential discrimination and injustice to hang over them for the rest of their lives even until we are no longer here then we cannot help our children when they are adults. While we have the chance while we still live, we need to fight for our children’s rights to safety, to freedom from discrimination and freedom from harm and the right for justice and protection. We cannot wait for someone else to do it because it may never come to be. In same way if society ignores injustice on those who are vulnerable, they will also be affected by the lack of justice available in society in some way or other.
The royal commission has come up against Life without Barriers (ABC NEWS 27th February 2023) suggesting/recommending that they pay compensation to those who they have wronged in their care. Allowing the assault of a girl by a support worker. Compensation yes good job. Shouldn’t that be a given? Yet oh no it has to be recommended by the royal commission why was not it an automatic penalty for hurting those in their care? “Life without Barriers has been urged to compensate the woman for sexual assault inside the LWB group home”. They called Life without Barriers the “Disabilities services giant” and giant it is making huge money out of the NDIS participants who go in trusting just as I did letting my son go to respite there. The day James came home with a swollen head was the day trust was broken as the scenario was covered and the police would not question the worker and queried cameras not being available to prove anything. Justice what justice?
Life without Barriers has tentacles into foster care as well as respite and residential care. The woman with cerebral palsy and intellectual disability was living in a group home. If she had not had a disability it would more than likely that the perpetrator would have been automatically charged and the organization she was involved with. However, there is little justice for those with disabilities when there should be equal justice! They are the most at risk of being harmed yet they are not being covered enough by legislation and the loopholes which allow providers to get away with much crime against those in their care – namely lack of camera mandates to capture the crimes and convict the perpetrators who are usually the workers who should not be working in disabilities. This lack of justice may seem unimportant to other parents whose children are not in care or not harmed so far but you do not know what could happen in the future for your own vulnerable child. It is open season on any in disabilities at present with no accountability or cameras to have evidence to convict the perpetrators with and protect the innocent.
We need to stand up for all those with disabilities to have proper justice and stronger laws or one day it could be another child or adult child of ours who is harmed because we trusted the provider and never suspected what was happening as happened as with what happened at Afford disabilities when they let their worker take photos of those in his care in showers and changing and was not caught for a long time. The boy has been charged but he should not have been working with these vulnerable young men at all and the standard of worker is very low in disabilities and needs to be lifted to more educated trained at least a year to two year like childcare – no they come in with no training and no education required.
The royal commission has asked Life without Barriers to make an ‘ex gratia payment’ to a woman referred to as Natalie following an indecent assault in 2014. This royal commission was in 2022 – why did it take so long? The article notes it is the first time in the Commissions almost five year history that it has specifically recommended a person with disability receive a monetary payment.
The man was charged with aggravated indecent assault of ‘natalie’ and being a carer ‘having sexual intercourse with a person with cognitive impairment’ At his jury trial in 2017 the key issue was noted as not being if he had touched Natalie during personal care, but whether the physical contact was for bona fide hygienic purpose!! There was the loophole. The carer was acquitted of all charges. Where is the justice? However the Royal Commission accepted that the man ‘touched Natalie inappropriately and the conduct should not have occurred’. If there had been cameras we would know for sure that what he had done was criminal. Without the cameras nothing no justice for those in disabilities as judges refuse to even acknowledge evidence by other witnesses who see the act done as occurred at Sunnyfields when the workers charges were dropped due to lack of evidence regardless of the two eyewitness support workers who testified in court. What does it take? Better laws. Even Jesus was falsely accused by witnesses and executed on that basis (Easter coming) yet true witnesses are not listened to for actual true testimony against criminals in this day and age who hurt our precious lambs in disabilities. For shame. The judges and our government should be ashamed at sacrificing our disability children to save money on court cases and not even creating any precedents in the courts to use for future cases of true assault and harm against the non verbal and vulnerable.
The recent stepping down of three executives at Afford disabilities three years after young Merna died in a bathtub, may be due to the court case coming against Afford this year. Those men should be in prison. Yet you cannot put a corporation in prison for their crimes – I find it strange that the workers looking after Merna were not charged with anything at all. Regardless of whether they got the information about Merna’s needs – shouldn’t any disability person not be left in the bath alone unsupervised? What standards of care are being put out by the NDIS to protect our children at all. Yes we must fight we must demands higher standards, actual protection for our children – health and safety standards to be made stronger in disabilities services of any kind and justice for our children who have been targeted and harmed or killed by neglect. If it can happen to one vulnerable person it can happen to more. Stand up and fight for better care better protection for our children and cctv cameras so that crime can be prosecuted in disabilities and cases proven and finally justice.
Noting the movie ‘Till’ recently come out that is about the murder of a 14 year old African boy, by white men who kidnapped him, and killed him in a major hate crime against young Emmett Till, in 1955, in America. Emmett’s mother after the court case, took up the fight for the rights of African Americans against the hatred and discrimination and fought for anti-lynching laws with a bill that would not come into being for years later. Her sons death made a big impact in the South as she published a photo of his body to show people what the murderers had done to ‘her baby’. Her son’s death and her speaking about it had the greatest impact that went on for years later and brought about the bill for anti-lynching law in America, that no other action was able to do. Had she not decided to fight for her son’s justice none of this could have been achieved.
Mami Till stood up at a rally sometime after losing the court case to convict her son’s murders as lies were used to protect these white southerners when they hurt or killed negoes there was no justice. She stood up with the society in Mississippi finally and said ‘I had a job and a house back in Chicago and when I used to hear about the troubles down here in Mississippi I said 'what does that have to do with me?' Then my son was killed and I have decided that it has everything to do with me and I am going to stand with you to fight for justice’ she realized there were others who were still suffering the blight of injustice and oppression and fear over their families and she wanted to join with them to fight for their freedom from such oppression.
The same applies in disabilities. WE must stand with each other as we are actually part of each other in this struggle for our children’s futures and justice. We cannot do it alone.
Sign my petition: change.org/disabilitycameras
All the best
Anndrea x

#disabilitylivesmatteroz