Disabled teenager instructed to perform sex act on school bus by another disabled student

By Louise Milligan

The parents of a Melbourne teenager with intellectual disabilities are seeking legal advice after he was commanded to perform a sexual act by another student on a school mini-bus which was supposed to be supervised by a chaperone.

The incident comes after several other Victorian incidents where children with disabilities were left abandoned on buses for hours and found at depots.

Victorian Education Minister James Merlino today told 7.30 he had commissioned an independent investigation into the school’s handling of the incident involving the teenager.

The Victorian Education Department has issued Crown Coaches, which has the contract for all special school buses in Melbourne, with a show cause notice, and has cancelled the contract with the child’s school.

Jalen Aughterson was 16 when his mother Leanne was horrified to discover a video on his mobile phone, which had been taken by another student, who also has an intellectual disability.

The student had filmed a selfie-style video of him repeatedly encouraging Jalen, who has an IQ of under 50, to give him oral sex on the bus.

The student’s genitals were exposed for much of the video.

Ms Aughterson could not watch the whole video because it was so distressing — she gave it to her husband.

“Something that I never ever imagined could have happened, happened,” Ms Aughterson said.

“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.”

During the incident, a chaperone employed by Crown Coaches was supposed to be supervising.

But the Aughtersons were the first to bring the incident to the school’s attention when they discovered the video.

“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,'” Ms Aughterson said.

Jalen’s father Shane Aughterson told 7.30 that as parents, “we just want to make sure our kids are safe on the bus”.

“I don’t think you’ve even got to be super-trained [to chaperone]. You’ve just got to care,” he said.

Children left at bus depot

When the incident happened in May this year, the supervisor was moved to another school route and Crown Coaches assured the family that staff would be retrained.

Monash Special Developmental School principal Helen McCoy contacted police.

“I was appalled, of course … that the supervision was inadequate on the bus to allow such an incident to occur,” Ms McCoy said.

The Aughtersons decided not to press charges because of the difficulties in both boys’ capacity to give evidence. They hoped it was just an awful isolated incident.

But then, last month, it was revealed that another boy also from Monash SDS had been found at the Crown depot in 31 degrees Celsius heat — he had been there all day after being left during the morning run.

The family also discovered that a third boy from another special school for autism in Melbourne, Bulleen Heights School, had also been left at the depot in June last year.

7.30 has spoken to another family from Victoria’s Mornington Peninsula whose son was left at the depot last year. In that case, another bus line was operating the service.

The Aughtersons fear a systemic problem is at play, with lack of supervision on outsourced buses.

“The Department of Education should be called to account in these matters and they should be taking steps to ensure that it doesn’t happen again,” said their solicitor, Lisa Flynn from Shine Lawyers.

“They have a duty of care to ensure that the supervision that’s said is being provided is in fact being provided.

“They can’t just wash their hands of it and give this really important responsibility to a bus company that’s clearly not properly doing its job.”

‘We feel like it’s a bit of a cover-up’

When Mr Aughterson contacted the school principal to inform her he was speaking to 7.30, Ms McCoy organised a Friday meeting with departmental officials to convince him not to go public.

He received further telephone calls from two departmental staff over the weekend, with one informing him that Crown Coaches’ contract to run his son’s bus route had been terminated an hour after he had left the meeting the day before.

Mr Aughterson said he felt the Education Department “just wanted it to go away”.

“We just feel like it’s a bit of a cover-up,” he said.

The Education Department refused to comment on the timing of the cancellation.

When 7.30 asked Ms McCoy whether the parents of the boy who had done this to Jalen knew what he had done, she replied, “I don’t know that.”

“I haven’t told them, so I don’t know… It’s not my place to tell them,” she said.

“It became a police incident and it was up to the police, nothing to do with this school.”

She said she had tried to ring the police officer involved once to check on the matter since it happened in May, but he was not in.

She said the boys had been given tuition in appropriate behaviour.

Victoria Police sent a statement saying all relevant parties had been informed.

‘Deeply concerning and unacceptable’

Stephanie Gotlib from Children and Young People with Disability Australia said it is extremely important when a child has intellectual disabilities to ensure that they are properly supported with sexual assault counselling if they are exhibiting this kind of behaviour.

“This is outrageous and I’m extremely concerned for both children involved. And all the children on the bus,” Ms Gotlib said.

The Department told her that Family Planning Australia conducts classes at the school instructing the children in appropriate behaviour, but Ms Gotlib says Family Planning Australia confirmed that they do not provide counselling of the sort she believes is vital.

Ms Gotlib said she has heard many complaints from parents with children with disabilities on Victorian school bus runs over many years, including forcing continent children to wear nappies, refusing toilet stops, and asking parents to medicate children just for the bus run to manage their behaviour.

Crown Coaches did not return 7.30’s calls before publication.

In a statement Education Minister James Merlino said “the safety and wellbeing of our students is the number one priority”.

He said he had asked the Education Department to investigate how the incident occurred, investigate all contracts under the Students with Disabilities Transport Program, including a review of training procedures for bus drivers and chaperones, and to commission an independent investigation into the school’s handling of the incident and whether appropriate protocols were followed.

“The Department is now reviewing all bus routes run by the company to make sure they are being run safely and effectively,” he said.

“Further action will be taken if Crown Coaches cannot show that proper safety measures are in place across all bus routes.”

The Education Department said in a statement the incident was “deeply concerning and unacceptable”.

“The service provided by Crown Coaches to Monash Special Development School did not meet the safety standards we require for our students and we have terminated the company’s contract with the school,” the statement said.

“We have also issued Crown Coaches with a show cause notice, which requires the company to demonstrate they are running all bus routes effectively and safely, and we will not hesitate to take further action.”

This post originally appeared on ABC News.