TOWNSVILLE: A determined father has secured triple his autistic son’s daily one-on-one support hours and forced the permanent locking of a dangerous second-story classroom window.
Dr Allan Orr waged a “laborious” battle against state education bureaucrats to secure essential classroom protections for his seven-year-old son, Allan.
“So it’s a really great result, but … we shouldn’t have had to do this,” Dr Orr said.
Young Allan, a grade two student at Townsville South State School, had previously regressed to surfing desks and tapping on windows after losing his long-term teacher aide.
“We’ve gone from one one-on-one session a day to probably about three now, so it’s probably about half the day,” Dr Orr said.
“Which is perfect for him.”
As previously reported in the Townsville Bulletin, the campaign began after the school used a piece of string to secure a second-story window for a boy with a “history of wandering”.
Following the report, the department directed QBuild to urgently remediate the window, a fix Dr Orr noted was processed strictly in “chronological order” rather than urgency.
“The window is locked now, that’s great too, but one of the things to take away from that was QBuild cannot prioritise based on risk assessment or danger,” Dr Orr said.
Clinical assessments had warned the boy was at significant risk of harm, yet the family faced a run-around from a system Dr Orr claimed was bogged down by red tape.
State education officials defended the school’s operations, insisting student wellbeing remained deeply integrated into all classrooms.
“The school works collaboratively with students, families, specialist staff, and support teams to provide reasonable adjustments tailored to individual learning and wellbeing needs,” a department spokesperson said.
“A strong culture of care, inclusion, and belonging is embedded across the school community.”
Dr Orr credited the media for acting as a shield against a faceless system.
“Bureaucrats have made themselves incredibly difficult to contact,” Dr Orr said.
“I don’t think without the Townsville Bulletin’s intervention any of this would have happened.”