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When Anna Cooper* read the letter from Anglicare Victoria informing her the school her son had been counting on to complete his VCE studies was soon to close, her reaction was visceral.
“I cried,” she said.
“He’s lost – he’s got what he thought was a really good support base under him at the moment and now he has no idea what’s in store for him because he know’s nobody else can offer what he needs.”
Ms Cooper’s son, Jake*, began attending Anglicare’s Educational Services Unit after he was hospitalised with a severe mental illness, and could no longer cope with the noise and crowds at a busy high school.
She says the organisation’s promise to help students like her son, who suffers from severe paranoid delusions, transition back into public school is a hollow one, as for many it is simply not an option.
“He can't go back to mainstream school,” she said.
“For the first three months he was [at the ESU] I would have to get out of the car every day and go and check to make sure it was a safe thing for him to go in there.
“To do that in a school the size of Bendigo [Senior Secondary College] is not reasonable, it’s not going to happen.”
Now Ms Cooper fears Jake’s education could be cut short when the school closes, on the cusp of his final year.
“He’s going to have a lot of challenges to overcome in his life and bowing out of education at 17 is not going to help that,” she said.
Leanne Cullen, whose son Riley Hunter also attends the school, is equally concerned about the students’ ongoing education.
“They didn't support these kids in mainstream schooling initially so I’m unsure how they think that’s going to work this time,” she said.
“They talk about kids needing education to get somewhere in life but if they take the education away that’s available for them, how do they get a chance at life?”
For his part, 16-year-old Riley shares his mother’s concerns about returning to the mainstream education system.
“I went to mainstream school for not very long and had trouble fitting in there and I fit in at ESU very well,” he said.
Education Department spokesman Simon Craig said the department would ensure all students affected by the closure were given every opportunity to thrive.
“Our regional support staff, together with St Luke’s Anglicare and DHHS, will work closely with each of the students and their families,” he said.
“Each student will have their own individualised plan to support their transition back to school, TAFE or other education or employment arrangements.”
*Names have been changed for privacy reasons.