By bobb |

We'd love for people to turn up for this hearing and blog about what the Victorian Government says (see details below).

So far the department has said that the reason for the young man’s failure to learn is that, he ate too many donuts.
Last week a department expert witness said that standardised assessments were not as good as unwritten teacher observations because, teachers have a special gift.

Last week the department lawyers and their expert witness said that people with an intellectual disability don’t learn, so no matter what you do with them they don’t improve.

On 14/5, the department expert witness was questioned whether if a student with a pragmatic speech disorder with 2 standard deviation from the normal should have received speech therapy, the response was no that they didn’t need speech therapy.

This case will continue until 25th May. It is important to have parents and others attend the hearing to help better inform the general community how the education department treats students with a disability.

This week the education department is being asked to respond to questions from the student’s lawyers. Next Wednesday 23 May, the education department manager of the disability will be on the stand. We have been told this could be an interesting day.

To get the full court transcript will cost $4.50 per 100 words. We encourage people to sit in everyday, we just need people to go and sit in on the morning or the afternoon and have them post on the A4 site anything they feel they would like to share from the experience.

To check the start times, call (03) 8600 3378

Federal Court is located on top of the Flagstaff railway station: 305 Williams Street Melbourne.

Justice Tracey in COURT (Level 8) Room 8G

10:15 AM (15 May)

VID405/2011 BEAU ABELA v STATE OF VICTORIA, DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION AND EARLY CHILDHOOD DEVELOPMENT

VID1102/2011 BEAU ABELA v STATE OF VICTORIA