Nowra mum Jodie Anyon is fed up with sweeping statements about kids with autism, and was angered to read One Nation Senator Pauline Hanson’s latest tirade about students with disabilities.

This week, Senator Hanson said these kids should be removed from mainstream classrooms because they are putting a strain on teachers and schools.

“Why should I have to put my child into a special school, there’s nothing like that in Nowra,” Mrs Anyon said.

“Her point of view was very narrow and closed-minded, I don’t think she has experience with kids with special needs.

“She needs to spend the week with me, and see what it’s really like.”

Mrs Anyon’s son, William, has thrived at a local preschool with high staff to student ratios.

“He becomes very isolated and withdrawn in a class that’s too large,” she said.

“I put him at Lyrebird Preschool, it’s been absolutely fantastic, I can’t commend anyone there enough.

“There’s an extremely amazing teacher there doing post graduate studies in autistic behaviour, she’s a big help.”

Like any parent, she wants what’s best for William, and that means being included in mainstream learning environments.

“Academically he’s very smart, but he’s speech delayed and learning delayed,” Mrs Anyon said.

“William learns from other children, he’s capable of doing what other students are doing, it just takes him longer to learn.”

After serious deliberations in choosing a primary school, on Friday Mrs Anyon enrolled William in Nowra Christian School for 2018.

“Gail, the enrolment officer there, made me feel very welcomed and less judged,” she said.

“She said ‘we can accommodate you’.”

She spent the past six months searching for the right school.

“I don’t want the teachers to think of him as naughty,” she said.

“It was a challenge finding a school that sees him as having behavioural issues, a school that’s willing to devise a plan to help him overcome that.”

William’s dad is deployed on defence force duties, and raising two kids without him at home has been hard.

What’s even harder, for Mrs Anyon, is nastiness from people who don’t understand, or try to understand the situation.

“William will have a break down in the shopping aisle, people do stop and stare at us, and some have said, ‘control your child’,” she said.

“I’ve gone home and just cried.”

She has worked to give William the best opportunity in life; each week is booked up with speech therapy and occupational therapy appointments.

“Autism is so broad, and people need to not judge,” she said.