Robyn Wuth
Chair of the disability royal commission, Ronald Sackville QC, is hearing submissions in Queensland.
The mother of five disabled children says one was so scared of school he was given a photo of his mum and dad to take with him every day as a promise that he would come home.
She said some days her middle child's anxiety was so bad he would sit terrified in the car and refuse to go through the school gates, the disability commission was told during public hearings in Townsville on Tuesday.
His older brother had a phobia about using the school toilet and was also bullied so relentlessly, he took a knife to school to keep tormenters at bay.
His sister was anxious in a different way, staying up until 3am every day to make sure her homework was perfect. The fourth struggles to process conversation and can't filter what her classmates say.
The youngest refused to speak until he was three, communicating by slamming his head into the wall. He is so afraid of changing his routine, he refuses to go on holiday with his family.
Their mother told the commission it had been an exhausting battle trying to get teachers to adjust to dealing with disabled children.
The woman, who is also a special education teacher, said she tried to put systems in place to manage her children's anxiety - giving them fidget spinners, telling them to calm down in the library, to stand back when class was too noisy, and to wear a hat when the fluorescent lights became too much.
The primary school rejected all her ideas.
Her oldest - always so literal - was forced to stand in a classroom after saluting a teacher who demanded he show respect.
"It can be incredibly difficult to get teachers to make adjustments, because of their lack of knowledge and lack of understanding," she said.
"Sometimes I've had to really bring out the big guns and talk about the DDA (Disability Discrimination Act) and stuff like that.
"It's exhausting, absolutely exhausting and frustrating and unnecessary."
She said while there were "amazing" teachers in the system, there were many who did not want disabled children in the classroom.
"It breaks my heart to think that people still think that children with a disability don't have the same rights as everybody else.
"It shows me that there's such a long way to go."
She said one problem was that current training on disability was too superficial and teachers don't know how to make adjustments.
Queensland Teachers Union president Kevin Bates said there was no "silver bullet" answer.
"Often the needs in terms of professional learning can't be adequately ascribed until the students are actually in the classroom."
He said more teachers and additional resources were needed to support students with a disability.
"One of the issues ... is that the expectations of a single teacher are often beyond the capacity of a single human being to deliver," Mr Bates said.
He said while teachers worked to make education inclusive, schools were denied resources to fully cater to students with disability.
Australian Associated Press