Schools: Cesspits for Ableism

I was chronically ill for three years during my time at highschool. I spent everyday fighting my body to get out of bed, to try to get school and attend at least a few classes. My attendance was about 50%. The classes that I did attend - I sat there, using all of my concentration to try to focus on what the teacher was saying, to try to take in at least some of the information, to try to hold my head up and sit up straight. And when I wasn't at school? I was laying in bed, too sick to sit up, too sick to read, too sick to even get myself to the toilet.

Teenage me was confused and scared by her health problems, overwhelmed by missed school work. I had spent my previous school years as a straight A student. While sick, I was just trying to pass all my assessments - and I did, which is damn good for someone attending half her classes and chronically ill, might I add.

But my school didn't see it the same way. They didn't want to celebrate the wins, or even acknowledge the struggles I was facing. They organised meetings with my parents behind my back, discussing my apparent "lack of motivation" with my studies. Trying to find ways to push me further and harder. My school, my teachers, they only saw me as a grade. They saw me as a VCE score, someone who threatened to bring down the average ATAR of the school. They refused to see me as a human - a young girl struggling to come to terms with her ill health, simply trying to make it through every day.

I had run-ins with various teachers multiple times. I was called unmotivated. My parents' parenting skills were questioned. I was called lazy I don't know how many times. So many teachers did this. When I tried to bring up the discrimmination and ableism I was facing with other teachers, in greater positions of authority, my concerns were immediately shut down. I had no power. No-one cared to hear my opinion. I had no voice.

The fact that the school only invited my parents, and not me, to meetings regarding my academic results and my health proved this. I was simply an academic score. I was not treated as a person. The only people who could, and did, stand up for me were my parents and my school psychologist. They fought for me and my health in those meetings. They were the only ones who saw me as who I was. A person.

Schools are breeding grounds for ableism and discrimmination. I was outright bullied by many teachers in regards to my chronic illness. The highschool I attended only cared about achieving top academic results, only cared about pushing their students to the brink to achieve those results. And this pushed teachers to bully and threaten students that didn't achieve those results, students that couldn't. Disabled students.

I would like to continue to bring awareness to ableism in the school sytem and push for change. Because ableism, discrimmination of any kind, is not okay. If you have a stroy about being discrimminated against at school and would like to share your story, your perspective, please reach out to me at saffroncannysmith@gmail.com or @neurosparklysaffy on Instagram. You can write your own story, or I can write on your behalf, and you are welcome to stay anonymous if you wish. Together, let's bring down ableism in schools.

Three photos taken from 2019, during my VCE studies whilst I was chronically ill. The photo on the far left is a selfie of Saffron, a teenage girl, lying down in bed crying. The middle photo depicts Saffron taking a mirror selfie in her year 12 jumper. The image on the far right is of Saffron asleep on the couch with her ginger cat Jackson.