My name is Gemma, and I am a Mum to three school-age kids. For privacy reasons I am not using their real names and the kids in the video are actors.

On Caitlin’s first day of kindy, she was pulled screaming into the classroom by her teacher. Although very concerned, her Dad and I were told to leave school grounds.

Teachers continued to rip Caitlin away from me for weeks. We are suing the NSW Department of Education so that they will work out better ways to support children with separation anxiety.

Caitlin had experienced separation anxiety in pre-school, so before she started kindy in 2024, I had asked the school to implement a wellbeing plan to ease Caitlin’s transition. However, the school decided Caitlin didn’t need additional support to start school. I spoke with Caitlin’s teachers on the phone about the incident and asked again for the school to implement a wellbeing plan for Caitlin, and continued to ask for months, via phone calls, emails and meetings.

For weeks, Caitlin clung to me at drop-off, teachers ripped her away, and instructed me to leave the school. The school did not create a wellbeing plan for Caitlin.

You might say “Why did you go along with this?” I am a trauma survivor living with complex PTSD, and I did not have a disability support worker present at drop-off, which allowed the school an opportunity to pressure me to comply with their ripping Caitlin away and telling me to leave. They knew about my trauma, and that I become intimidated, scared and frozen in distressing situations. The school leveraged their authority and exploited my vulnerabilities.

In week 7 of term, my new disability support worker attended school drop-off with me.

That morning, Caitlin was grabbed around the waist by her teacher and pulled off the doorframe she was clinging to. My support worker told me that what the teachers had done to Caitlin was absolutely unacceptable and constituted assault.

Two weeks later, I was banned from school premises.

I knew I needed to stop this discriminatory, traumatic restraint of my daughter once and for all. I walked into the classroom and told her teachers this wasn’t working. I reached down to Caitlin, put my hand on her chest and said,

“I can feel her little heart racing. What the school has been doing is traumatising her and me.”

I was yelled at, surrounded by staff and instructed, like so many days before, to leave school premises. But this time, I replied,

“I would love to leave. But Caitlin's teachers have been engaging in unauthorised restrictive practices against her and you have ignored my requests for a well-being plan for her. We need a plan for her.”

They told me I needed to leave or they would call the police. Surrounded by staff, I was terrified, my body was frozen and I couldn’t communicate my needs. The police arrived and walked me to the school gate. The following day, I was issued a Ban Notice, banning me from entering school premises until further notice.

I couldn’t go and watch Caitlin, Olivia or Ryan at their athletics carnival, I couldn’t watch Ryan’s school performance. I couldn’t be there to cheer on my kids. I was exiled from my kids’ school community.

I am now taking legal action against the Department of Education for their discrimination against both Caitlin and me. I have spent $100,000 already and the hearing costs could be as high as another $100,000.

The Department of Education has decided to bring multiple witnesses for a multiple-day hearing, significantly increasing the complexity and the costs of the proceedings for me. My lawyer, Peter Vogel was quoted in the Adelaide Advertiser when they covered our story:

“While the department has a right to defend the case, the scale of its proposed response to a matter involving the welfare of a young child raises significant questions about proportionality and the resources deployed when such practices are challenged.

“A case like this could cost $50,000 to $100,000 and the Department of Education will not be required to reimburse her even if she wins. This is why issues like this go on for decades unchallenged.”

Even if we do win, the Department of Education may not be required to reimburse us. I am extremely fortunate that the lawyers I have engaged to fight this case have provided reduced cost, ’low-bono’ services to me. But even at this reduced rate, the costs of the multi-day hearing are very high for our single-income family living on a nurse’s wage.

No cost is too high to protect our kids.

If we win, it will send a clear message to schools that physical restraint of kids is unlawful. Discrimination against kids and their parents must stop. I don’t want any other family to endure this.

We’re asking for your help to raise the funds to fight this legal battle. Sharing this GoFundMe page with your family, friends and community will also be of enormous help.

Our story was covered in the Adelaide Advertiser on 3rd Oct, 2025. It can be found here:

Distressing scenes at kindy drop-off led to mum being banned – and now a discrimination claim against the Education Department

https://www.adelaidenow.com.au/education/schools-hub/early-education/distressing-scenes-at-kindy-dropoff-led-to-mum-being-banned-and-now-a-discrimination-claim-against-the-education-department/news-story/b28f684d13801f1ffad02c2abf6b46dc

Thank you for reading our story. Thank you for caring.