THE principal of Western Autistic School has expressed deep disappointment with comments made by a Liberal upper house MP who called for her dismissal in State Parliament last week.
Under parliamentary privilege, Western Metropolitan MP Bernie Finn said Val Gill should be dismissed by the education minister following comments made to this newspaper.
“She has caused and continues to cause both confusion and enormous distress to parents who have done nothing to deserve such treatment,” Mr Finn said.
“Her statement, as reported in the local newspaper last week, referring to autistic-specific schools as ‘autism silos’ is the last straw. It is insulting and deeply offensive. She continues to put her own empire ahead of the interests of children with autism and their families.”
Ms Gill told the Weekly: “I’m deeply disappointed with his comments and my focus has always been the kids.”
In our February 14 story, ‘The different faces of autism’, Ms Gill said she understood parents wanted the option of a prep to year 12 autism-specific school.
“But to have them in an autistic environment from prep until the real world, somewhere in that you would have to build in the opportunity for those kids to blossom in a social world and not in a purely autistic environment.
“And talking to [special education consultant] Professor Loretta Giorcelli, she’s saying that an autism silo is against all international best practice and research.”
Last Thursday in Parliament, Opposition Leader Daniel Andrews and education spokesman James Merlino called on Education Minister Martin Dixon to rule out Mr Finn’s call for Ms Gill to be sacked.
Mr Merlino accused Mr Finn of “shamelessly hiding behind parliamentary privilege”.
Asked if he was willing to call for Ms Gill’s dismissal outside Parliament, Mr Finn did not respond.
Mr Dixon’s spokesman James Martin said: “The minister does not have the authority to dismiss a principal, nor is he considering it.”
