Dealing With Reality !

A Royal Commission is delving into events that happened at facilities provided for the Protection and Detention of Children in the Northern Territory.  Viewers of the television programme " Four Corners " were shocked last July to see footage of a seventeen year old boy in a restraint chair, hands strapped to its arms and his head covered by a hood.

That young man was Dylan Voller and this week he was being questioned by Sonia Brownhill SC,  Solicitor General for the NT Government. He was asked about incidents in his life since he first attended - and was expelled - from primary school and gradually progressed through various forms of correction until he ended up at Aranda House Youth Detention Centre in Alice Springs.

Counsel carefully took him through his erratic behaviour in primary school when he attacked fellow pupils, failed to take part in class and refused to take the drug Ritalin.  As with most questions, Mr Voller answered with the reply . " I don't remember " !   He also didn't remember tearing off protective clothing when he was deemed at risk of deliberately injuring himself.

The questioning became more vivid when he was asked about the evidence given by staff at Aranda House.  He was accused of threatening to rape the children and grandchildren of carers and to burn down their homes - with them inside.  He used the phrase " I don't remember ! " twenty-five times as Ms Brownhill  described a lexicon of incidents.   It was a harrowing listing of aberrant behaviour , futile bravado and madness and he frequently urinated and defecated in his allocated room and used this to write messages on the walls.

This is probably the extreme end of the scale that most school teachers have to cope with across the Australian education system.  They usually encounter a small percentage of children who strenuously object to attending school and are determined to learn nothing.   To their credit, they usually manage to " tame " such rebels but some go on being handed from school to school until they eventually become delinquents and receive the attention of the police.

What really attracted the attention of the Australian public - was the fact that Dylan Voller is Indigenous !   We white Australians have a guilty conscience because for a long time the Aboriginal people were virtually ignored, and now we want to makeup for that neglect.   The first thing that happened when these pictures hit the screen on Four Corners - was the close down of Aranda House. The whole purpose of this Royal Commission - is to allocate guilt !

We were shocked that an Aboriginal boy could be subjected to extreme physical restraint and the vast majority immediately assumed that this was unwarranted.  So many people with left wing views automatically take the side of the prisoner and heap blame of those tasked with the unpleasant duty of even preventing self harm.   The verdict is clear in the minds of many people - before the first scintilla of evidence is given !

The finger of blame can be pointed in many directions.   Is it " the system " that is letting down Indigenous kids ?    Is it Aboriginal parenting failing to give them direction to the opportunities offering ?   Or are some juvenile minds so auto programmed to rebellion that self destruction is inevitable ?

Unfortunately, the influence of politics make the outcome of such enquiries very predictable  !