A VICTORIAN school is facing a human rights complaint for reportedly suggesting an autistic pupil weeds and sweep footpaths as occupation therapy.

The family of Gabriel Eyre have told the Australian Human Rights Commission that Balnarring Primary School discriminated against the five-year-old prep boy.

Mum Mirinda Eyre said the school limited his attendance to less than four hours a day and regularly pulled him from the classroom.

She said the school also suggested he sweep paths and pull weeds as a form of push-pull occupational therapy.

• An eight-year-old boy with autism was locked in a plywood box to calm down
• The box had no windows, just a peephole, and measured eight cubic metres
• His mother, Melbourne woman Emily Dive, is suing the Department of Education
• Lachlan hasn't attended school in more than a year - he can't be accommodated
• Previously he was only permitted to attend school for two hours a day  

In a brightly lit space in one of the school's newer buildings a group of teenage boys is sitting in a rough circle playing a get-to-know you game that's a mix of musical chairs and guess who. There's the usual jokey exchanges and awkward adolescent shuffling, but nothing that sets this group apart from the norm.

For most of his schooling, Jack* has been locked away from his classmates.

The 15-year-old is confined to his own portable classroom, which opens onto a fenced-off playground.

Meltdowns are only a concern if they persist beyond two-and-a-half years in a child. Photo: Mark Piovesan

The fence has been covered in sheets of plastic, which means Jack – who is autistic, non-verbal and has an intellectual disability – can't see out. It also means no one can look in.

Henrietta Cook & Timna Jacks

Sometimes when Angus arrived at school, his classroom was empty.

All the students were on an excursion, except for him.

"They kept the excursions a secret," the 12-year-old says. "I wasn't even told about them. It made me sad, and sometimes I got mad."

Desperate parents are shopping for a label for their children's disability in a bid to secure vital classroom support.

In order to satisfy rigid funding rules, parents of students with high-functioning autism and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder are seeking a diagnosis of severe behaviour disorder.

Psychiatrists say the latter is a label that applies to students who cause intolerable disturbances in class.

Neelima Choahan

When Maria Thomas placed her son in a state-funded disability emergency home, she expected him to be safe.

Instead, Matthew, a non-verbal man with autism, was attacked several times at a group home, Autism Plus, that he shared with four other people.

The Anne McDonald Centre made an alarming submission to the Victorian Parliamentary Inquiry into Services for People with ASD.

It alleges inappropriate testing of non-verbal children, many of whom have ASD ... and subsequently, inappropriate and ineffective teaching in Victorian schools.

The submission can be downloaded from http://www.parliament.vic.gov.au/images…;