South Australian mother Jody Bosner experienced this horrible situation recently when a carer, employed by the school in their vacation care program, made a shock confession.
Jody shared her story with Sunday Mail, saying she hadn't been able to figure out why her 10-year-old autistic son had begun to act out in a violent manner earlier in the year.
A widow, Jody says she almost lost her job as a senior nurse due to the time she had to take off to look after her son during this time and was blaming herself for his bad behaviour.
Jody says a while later a carer came up to her and said, 'I am just going to apologise to you. We were at McDonald's and he was on the ground behind me, and I was having a bad day.'
The carer then proceeded to tell Ms Bosner that she had lost her temper and repeatedly kicked her son.
The children had been at the fast-food chain as part of an excursion and another member of staff had witnessed the incident and reported it at the time.
Jody was not told anything about the attack when it happened and says that her son was later diagnosed with acute post-traumatic stress disorder and was put on anti-anxiety medication.
When Jody discovered the worker was not being fired from the role she went to the police who told her the CCTV footage had been wiped and the worker was warned but not charged over the incident.
The carer did eventually leave the service but Jody was not told whether this was due to being let go or quitting.
The Education Department told the Sunday Mail the investigation was continuing and the worker was 'no longer at the school', which would 'continue to communicate with the family about this incident.'
This article originally appeared on New Idea.
