Australian school locks boy in cage

Education authorities in Western Australia yesterday defended the actions of a Perth school where an intellectually disabled boy was locked in a purpose-built cage.

The fenced enclosure at Kenwick School was built on the advice of a behavioural expert who said the 12-year-old boy would benefit from a place to cool off. Its existence was discovered by Sheila Simons, who found out that her grandson, Neil, had been confined there for up to 80 minutes at a time.

Mrs Simons, who is Neil's guardian, won a battle to have the enclosure dismantled, but is demanding the dismissal of the school principal and an apology.

School records show that Neil, who has an autism-related disorder, was locked up nearly every day and sometimes several times a day. He frequently took off his clothes, urinated and defecated inside the enclosure, which was surrounded by a 3.5m-high wire fence. There were no lavatory facilities and he had no access to water. On one occasion, a group of pupils at the school - which caters for children with disabilities - threw stones at him.

The Western Australia Department of Education's assistant director of student services, John Brigg, yesterday defended the use of "withdrawal facilities" or "low stimulation areas" as legitimate and widely accepted.

"We'll be looking into this but ... it is part of the policy that low stimulation areas be used where children with extremely challenging behaviour can be withdrawn for short periods of time," he said."I understand that the outcomes for this particular child were lots of gains made in terms of his ... social behaviour in particular."