Rhys chinchen

Rhys Chinchen is a 21 year old from Australia.
THERE may be several reasons why an exceptionally bright child is underachieving, but discrimination should not be one of them.
In a warning to teachers with problem children, a tribunal has found that a gifted child with the learning disability motor dyspraxiawas discriminated against at Seaforth Public School in 1999 and has awarded him $15,000 compensation.
The case raised questions about how such students could best be educated and noted that the school failed to seek advice in regards to the child when he was in years 5 and 6.
The Administrative Decisions Tribunal found last Thursday that Rhys Chinchen, now 17, was denied access to support for his disability, unlawfully excluded from an extension class for gifted children and "victimised" due to the withdrawal of a home-support plan.
Six of the 10 allegations of discrimination by his parents, Noel and Christine Chinchen, were dismissed.
A NSW Department of Education spokesman, Mark Davis, said the department "will look at appealing".
Rhys's full-scale IQ was within the "very superior" range but his achievements at school did not reflect this. Like many learning-disabled children, his abilities varied - he produced little written work in class and group activities but gave excellent oral presentations and his home assignments were exceptional.
His teacher, Bonita Hawkes, concluded that Rhys was "lazy and unmotivated".
"By forming this conclusion within the first few weeks of teaching Rhys, she appears to have closed her mind to the possibility that Rhys's apparent difficulty with completing tasks in class (other than maths) was attributable to some other cause," the tribunal said.
"The tragedy of the case is that for all of 1999 the school overlooked the need to have Rhys assessed by the school counsellor. Had it done so, the school would have been able to obtain expert assistance at a much earlier stage and to address Rhys's difficulties in a more informed manner."
Mr and Mrs Chinchen sued the NSW Department of Education and Training after an unsatisfactory response.
Yesterday, Mr Chinchen told the Herald he was "thrilled" by the "landmark decision".
"It makes it very clear that it's not enough for teachers or principals to say that they were doing their best," Mr Chinchen said.
"Even if they think they're doing the right thing, if they don't get an appropriate assessment of that child, then they may well be acting unlawfully.
"So ignorance of a diagnosed disability is not an excuse."

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