Autistic children look on during the Horse Therapy Special Children program at the Mounted Police Sub-Division in Bangkok June 17, 2014.
IN PHOTO: Autistic children look on during the Horse Therapy Special Children program at the Mounted Police Sub-Division in Bangkok June 17, 2014. The program aims to help children with autism and other physical problems develop brain and body coordination and to adapt to their family and community. REUTERS/Chaiwat Subprasom

An Australian Capital Territory public school is under fire for allegedly placing a special needs child in a cage-like space. ACT Education Minister Joy Burch expressed her disgust over the school’s practice to reportedly keep in a 10-year-old boy with autism.

Authorities said the school, which remains unnamed for privacy reasons, built a 2mx2m structure made with pool fencing inside a classroom for the child. The school apparently told parents that it was meant to be a “sanctuary.”

Canberra Times reports that the structure appeared to have been built on March 10 specifically for the child, who is believed to be a 10-year-old autistic boy. It was dismantled 17 days later when the Education Directorate became aware of it from a formal complaint by the Children’s and Young People’s Commissioner on March 26.

An investigation has been launched and the principal has been stood aside and placed on administrative duties in head office. The government has told the incident to the parents of students with special needs, but it did not disclose the situation to other parents.

Burch called the building of the fence an “example of extreme decision-making.” “Words cannot put into place my absolute disappoint and horror that anyone in our schools would consider a structure of this nature in any way shape or form to be acceptable,” the education minister, who is also the Minister for Disability, said. She added that the investigation will determine whether the withdrawal space was ever used and if how many times and under what circumstances.

ACT Education Director General Dianne Joseph said the directorate also launched an independent inquiry on the matter. Their inquiry would include questions such as how the decision to build the structure was made and what the involvement of different people was. She noted that schools regularly employ withdrawal spaces to control the behaviour of students with special needs, but the cage-like fence built by the school in question was unacceptable.

“The space was basically a fenced-in structure inside the classroom,” Joseph said. “It was entirely inappropriate and unacceptable, and the structure has been removed. The decision to erect such a structure raises so many questions. This is not how our students should be treated.”

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