Open the door
Let out
Set free
Discovery and investigation
Floodgate
Abandoning the old and embracing the new
Seclusion
Unvoluntary confinement
Unable to freely exit
Alone
Restraint
purposely limiting or obstructing freedom
physical force to restrict, prevent, immobilize, subdue movement
We know New Zealand schools, in the past, used solitary confinement and physical force, mostly against neurodivergent and disabled students. Intolerable restraint and seclusion of children and young people has been going on behind closed doors, against guidelines and policy. We seek accountability by opening the door on abuse and agency cover-up, exposing the harm and trauma it causes, in hope that it will not be repeated.
ABOUT
10 years ago, in 2014, we discovered the dark and grimy storeroom used for seclusion at the school our son was attending. lt was barbaric. lt was a secret.
15 years earlier, before our children were even born, the Ministry of Education in New Zealand had provided schools with a systematic approach to the management of extreme behaviour. The Ministry made it clear then, that shutting students into rooms where they can’t get out, was aversive and placed students and staff at risk. lt warned schools not to use timeout rooms, as doing so could result in teachers and schools being accused of using inhumane and cruel punishments. But some schools did it anyway and no one was watching.
I viewed the safe room and found it to be dark and grimy.
Schools used emotive terms to describe these rooms e.g. concrete bunker, the cage and quick and dirty
EDUCATION (UPDATE) AMENDMENT BILL
ROYAL COMMISSION OF INQUIRY INTO ABUSE IN CARE
Our names are Callum and Victoria Turnbull. Our son, Rovin Turnbull, experience physical and psychological abuse, including restraint and seclusion, while at school. This is our joint statement about our family's experience with the New Zealand education system, and our attempts to find out what happened to our son and seek accountability.
When our Witness Statement for the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care was finalized, we sent it to various agencies, organizations and people referenced in it.
PUBLIC HEARING - 18 AUGUST 2022
9:23:36
11:57:16 to 12:42:30
14:55:55
COMPLAINTS AGAINST MINISTRY OF EDUCATION STAFF AND CONTRACTOR
INDEPENDENT POLICE CONDUCT AUTHORITY - IPCA
WHANAKETIA - THROUGH PAIN AND TRAUMA FROM DARKNESS TO LIGHT
We all have a role to play in ensuring that Aotearoa New Zealand recognizes what happened and why, seeks to right those wrongs, and seeks to build a future where abuse and neglect has been eliminated. We now know that countless thousands of children, young people and adults in the care of State and faithbased institutions have been abused and neglected, at times by multiple abusers, and that this has occurred for generations. We all have a role in seeing that this does not continue.
Judge Coral Shaw – Chair
Dr Andrew Erueti – Commissioner
Paul Gibson QSO – Commissioner
