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A Human Rights Review Tribunal has found an Auckland primary school unlawfully collected and misused sensitive medical information about a mother and her son, resulting in prejudicial treatment of the pair by staff and ending with an expensive settlement. Herald journalist Mike Scott examines the case and why the school remains unnamed. The school outing was the first of a young boy’s school life and a chance for a 5-year-old and his mother to feel part of a new community. Instead, it was an excruciating ordeal and one of several painful experiences the boy would endure in his first year of school. Getting on the bus to return to school, the small, blond-haired boy with learning difficulties – because of being born extremely premature – was already screaming. Hungry, overstimulated and unable to regulate his emotions, he spiralled and physically lashed out at the person he trusted most – his mother. The boy landed blows all over her, including her arm, freshly broken and in a cast after a fall the day before. She tried to hold him at arm’s length as other children, teachers and parents looked on. “I couldn’t breathe,” she said later. Another child sitting beside them began crying and was moved away. The distressed mother and her son were left alone. The screaming, flailing and humiliation continuing for the entire journey back to school. Only once the bus arrived at school did another parent intervene. The tribunal found an Auckland school used sensitive information about a mother’s past to treat her and her son prejudicially. Photo / Mike Scott At the time, the mother did not understand why no one had stepped in to relieve a distressed child and an overwhelmed parent. But now, after years of persistent calls for justice, she finally has a Human Rights Review Tribunal ruling telling her why. The tribunal found staff at the Auckland primary school unlawfully collected and misused highly sensitive medical information about the mother and her son. The information included past drug use and sex work by the mum. The tribunal determined the information should never have been in the school’s possession and was used to form prejudicial views that shaped how mother and child were treated poorly and differently to others while he attended the school, causing humiliation, loss of dignity and harm. The mother and son have been awarded more than $29,000 in damages. “It’s quite disheartening knowing that it’s historical information that has no relevance whatsoever to me as a mum then,” the mother told the Herald after the tribunal ruling was released last month. “And now it has tarnished what should be one of my child’s best childhood memories – starting school.” However, the tribunal has permanently suppressed the name of the school and the identities of its staff to protect the child from future discrimination. It has left the mother, her now 11‑year‑old son, and the teacher aide who spoke out to support them, feeling their long fight for justice remains incomplete. ‘It’s not who I am now’ In the boy’s second week of school, a special educational needs co-ordinator (Senco), who was a senior teacher, and a deputy principal met with a Starship community nurse to discuss support for the child. During that meeting, the nurse provided copies of the mother’s medical records – an action that Auckland District Health Board (ADHB) later said was wrong and formally apologised for. The file included a confidential 11-page child‑protection report containing highly sensitive medical, family and social information about the mother and son. It included details of a traumatic pregnancy, the boy’s extreme premature birth and the mother’s past methamphetamine use before she knew she was pregnant. It also contained later paediatric assessments showing the child was developing well and had been discharged fro...
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