'Life-destroying impact': Most people who were abused in care were disabled

Thursday, 14 April 2022

“I saw children being harmed because of their disability …,” says Darryl Smith. “Like a slap across their face for not doing something right, not being able to sing properly.”

Smith was one of many survivors who shared his experiences of abuse at the Marylands School public hearing at the Abuse in Care Royal Commission of Inquiry.

He first became aware of his disability when he was around 6 years old and his younger brother joined the same class.

“It made me look stupid, I was his older brother. It showed me that I wasn't normal though.

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“It was drummed into my head that I was stupid, and I have been put into a box my whole life of being a slow learner,” he said.

He was sent to Marylands as a child because his parents were told under the advice of the Department of Education it was “a good school for children who had problems”.

But when he arrived, that couldn’t have been further from the truth.

“There was no good experience of schooling at Maryland's. I did not receive any particular special needs education at Maryland's. There were children who were really bright, they got the same treatment as all of us, they got hidings, rapes, discipline with the ruler.”

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Paul Gibson is one of four commissioners leading the Royal Commission of Inquiry.

Gibson is legally blind with some residual peripheral vision. He uses speech output technology and Braille.

He remembers that, growing up, his parents had the option to send him to a residential school, due to his disability.

'It seemed like there was, you either go to a residential facility or you're at home with no support.”

In the end, his parents didn’t send him to a residential school.

He said the schools were seen as a good option for boys with disabilities at the time.

“There's almost this projection that ‘we are a great place to send your son, and they will learn and have an experience which will be far better than their local school’,” he said. “It's almost like they’re grooming the community, the society, the parents into believing something which just isn't true.”

Once kids left home for residential schools, the abuse would start and families wouldn’t know.

“By nature, disabled people need care. And care often takes place in private,” said Gibson. “The stigma is part of why the stories aren't heard and what makes us more vulnerable.”

Adam Powell was also sent to Marylands because it was meant to offer an education programme for children “who struggled like me”, he said in his Marylands inquiry witness statement.

“I struggled to understand what I was being taught in school – I had difficulty writing and understanding.”

Powell learnt best by being shown, not by being told, something that would frustrate his siblings.

He doesn’t blame his adoptive family for sending him to Marylands, even though he was abused there.

“I do believe they [the family] had good intentions in sending me to Marylands in an effort for me to learn with my difficulties … They did their utmost best and I truly thank them for giving me the opportunity to learn to read and write.”

But when he arrived at Marylands, the schooling was “terrible”.

“I learnt basically nothing,” he said. “I just didn’t understand what was really going on and why I was really there. It took me a while to learn anything because I had to be taught manually because of my difficulties.”

In his witness statement, Powell described the sexual abuse, physical abuse and neglect by the staff while at Marylands, but said “I didn't understand what was happening at the time”.

Gibson said the understanding of what constitutes abuse and neglect for disabled people is not well understood.

“It's not always recognised as abusive, to some extent it's accepted as 'our lot' at times … we have different communication needs and might not be able to talk and describe abuse and neglect.”

He said ableism also contributed towards abuse of disabled people.

“Historically, there's been a kind of eugenics movement that societies around the world have not just wanted to isolate, segregate disabled people, but often even breed us out of society to that extent,” he said. “And these attitudes to some extent still live with us today amongst our population and in … our systems and our health services and our disability support services, in our communities.”

Donald Ku was moved between foster homes, his parents' home and institutions like Lake Alice and Marylands until he was 17 years old.

“Most of the places I've been weren't able to handle me,” he said in his witness statement.

“I was throwing tantrums regularly … I think that tantrums were how I expressed myself because I was always so frustrated. But they made it very difficult for people to look after me. It was a vicious cycle.

“After a while, I started to just adapt to the sexual things that happened at Marylands. I was also threatened by Brother McGrath to keep quiet about what was going on. Once, he took me to the hospital morgue and showed me a corpse as a way of silencing me.”

These survivor stories show that when you are in a residential setting, without access to your family and community, it can have a “life-destroying impact over a long period of time”, Gibson said.

“There is a role for the state and ensuring that local schools are accessible so that families, parents can send their child to their local school with confidence, knowing that they're going to have the best experience they can. But they will learn that they will come out being a citizen who can contribute and enjoy life.”

Disability is often seen as a “deficit”, said Gibson. “Whereas we could reframe it as a difference, which gives us strength.”

“Most people in New Zealand who are abused in care were disabled people across a broad spectrum. We are more vulnerable and it's really not well understood out there yet in the community and that is still ongoing and the solutions need to be developed and they need to be led by disabled people.”

Gibson said his personal experience of disability brings something unique to the inquiry.

“The day-to-day challenges that many of us face in our lives and what happens on top of them, that's an insight which I don't think you can get from just being a professional. And I don't think that many professionals understand what they don't understand,” he said.

“And we are obliged to disabled people organisations as a society, as a Government inquiry to get this shared wisdom.”

The sharing of these stories, not just from the inquiry but among all disabled people, to bring about change was an “extremely powerful” tool to help transform the systems that disabled people use, he said.

“Our wisdom, our lived experience, what we learn, not just through research data, which is all important, but also just the conversation we have amongst ourselves, with our families, needs to inform a transformative system,” he said. “[All systems need] to make sure that it includes disabled people in the same way that it does other people to make sure that we are not abused or neglected within these supports and services.”

Smith, one of the survivors, wants his legacy to live on through telling his story.

“The thing is, at the end of the day, that I feel strong and empowered to keep on the fight, making a stand against child abuse, I will never stop doing this until I die,” he said.

Gibson said: “We should have the opportunity to celebrate who we are, the same way that other people of other cultures are, and get the support that we need to be all we can be.”

A report on the Marylands hearing with recommendations to the Government will be released later this year.