Disabled boy pressured into sex act on fellow student on school bus
The parents of an intellectually disabled Melbourne teen said they are appalled their son was commanded to perform an oral sex act on another disabled student on a school bus.
Leanne and Shane Aughterson said they found video of the act on son Jalen’s mobile phone and told ABC they felt as if the Education Department tried to “cover up” the incident.
The parents said they were horrified someone would try and take advantage of their son, who has an IQ of under 50, even while the children are supposed to be supervised by a chaperone.
The incident happened in May this year.
The video allegedly shows the other intellectually disabled student film the act in a “selfie style”.
"Something that I never ever imagined could have happened, happened," Mrs Aughterson told ABC 7.30.
"I'd put him out there and relied on people to look after him or protect him, where we can't, and their system failed.
"I can't come up with any reason as to how a supervisor could miss this. I was very, very angry and I said to myself, 'You would have to be blind."
The Aughtersons decided against pressing charges due to the mental capacity of both students but said more care needed to be given to special needs students.
The Victorian Education Department has issued the bus service involved, Crown Coaches, with a show clause and cancelled the contract the business had with Jalen’s school.
"We deeply regret that the incident took place on a Crown Coaches bus. Through retraining and constant evaluation of our procedures, we remain committed to ensuring the safety of our passengers,” Crown Coaches told the ABC in a statement.
"The chaperone was retrained, and was removed from the school bus run.”
According to 7.30, there have been other instances where children with disabilities were left abandoned on buses for hours and found at depots.
A spokesperson from Children and Young People with Disability Australia said there had been complaints from parents with children with disabilities on Victorian school bus runs previously.
These include forcing continent children to wear nappies, refusing toilet stops, and asking parents to medicate children just for the bus run to manage their behaviour.
