College under fire for isolating young child

PETE MARTINELLI usual boy issues like rough play and wrestling,” the woman said.

“He’d even been stabbed near the eye with scissors by another student and there was no consequences for that child.

“If he ever retaliated, the blame was placed on him.”

She alleged the family was given the choice of expulsion or isolation.

The boy’s older brother, 22, said the other child was “a few grades older” than his sibling.

“(My brother) was made to sit in the library and wasn’t allowed out for lunchtime or anything like that,” he said. “My mother, my father, my grandmother and I had to teach him in the library. None of us were qualified but we were told if it didn’t happen, he would not be educated.”

He said the child was taught from a supplied booklet without teacher assistance.

“He sat at a desk and couldn’t leave the desk,” he said. “He wasn’t involved with the other kids when they came into the library, he was kept separate.”

His brother has since transferred to a different school.

A female former student of Jubilee Christian College earlier this year spoke out against the school’s security cameras, including one installed in a girls’ bathroom.

The boy’s brother remembers when the cameras were installed.

“All the students thought it was weird and bizarre, but as a student, what do you do,” he said. “They said it was for vandalism.

“We knew nothing about it at all – I didn’t take home any letters about cameras.”

Jubilee is a member of Christian Schools Australia.

CSA has referred the matter back to Jubilee Christian College for comment.

Administrator of Distance Education for Jubilee, Flloyd Rissner, cited privacy issues and opted not to comment.

“Jubilee takes the privacy of students who are currently or previously enrolled very seriously and therefore we are not able to comment regarding these matters,” he said.

“The college board is willing to meet with and discuss any of these matters with the families involved.”