Since the identities of all the individuals involved in the school cage scandal have been withheld, their reactions to the inquiry which examined how and why a 10-year-old autistic boy student came to be locked up in March can only be guessed at. The school's principal – who was found to be primarily at fault and who will not be "returning to a school" as a result – is probably mortified. The Education Directorate bureaucrats whose handling of the initial complaint was found to be remiss may be similarly remorseful.
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If ACT Education director-general Diane Joseph and her boss, Education Minister Joy Burch, have been examining their consciences, it was not readily apparent at the press conference on Tuesday when the inquiry findings were announced. Ms Joseph said "principals will be held accountable for their decisions", and declared that the directorate had appointed a "director for families and students" with carriage of student safety and wellbeing to make sure there was no repetition. Ms Burch said she'd been frustrated and upset by the time it had taken (165 days) the directorate to complete its inquiry, and that Canberra families had "been sold short".
The principal's decision to order a two-metre by two-metre structure built to separate or calm an unruly special-needs student was a serious error of judgment, made worse by her apparent failure to seek prior directorate approval – and by the fact that "locking up" children has been regarded as beyond the pale for years. But withdrawal spaces are not unknown in schools. Indeed, since mainstream schools have begun enrolling more special-needs students, these spaces have assumed a greater prominence and importance.
Segregating an unruly and unresponsive child for his or her own safety and that of other pupils – and in a way that enables close monitoring of that child – would strike many people as a not-unreasonable proposition. Their judgment might be different, however, were the space to be overtly cage-like in appearance, as this was.
In the sense that the idea was sound or well intentioned but the execution mishandled, people may feel a degree of sympathy for the principal. That enrolments of special needs students have risen by 25 per cent over the past four years may warrant further commiseration, particularly since it's not clear the directorate has prepared or resourced public schools to adequately meet the challenges of students with disability. The clearest indication that progress on this front has been dilatory was the government's decision in April to appoint University of Canberra academic Tony Shaddock to review special education across the territory.
However, the public got no admissions or hints of institutional failings or weaknesses from Ms Burch or Ms Joseph on Tuesday, much less an expressions of regret over this episode. It was just "an isolated example of very poor decision making", which would not be repeated. The vast mismatch between Ms Burch's rhetoric and her administrative record means the public can have little confidence in this particular prediction.
