The name is absent

316

The school appointed one counsellor specifically for Aboriginal
students. There was an energetic effort aimed at isolating ’problems’,
Visitingparents, and providing special programmes to meet the
needs of Aboriginal children.
«

One group of students, not all Aborigines, was placed in a
’special class* under the care of the counsellor allocated to
Aborigines. The children in this ’special class’ came from disorganized
homes, were often truants, and were distinguished by their low
degree of motivation. Problems of delinquency could often be
traced to members of this class.
*
* ∙ ® * *

An inspection of the numbers of Aboriginal children coming before
the Children’s Courtɪ, prepared by the Aboriginal Legal Aid service,
did not seem to bear out the perceptions of the Adelaide Aboriginal
people of an abnormally high rate of ’Aboriginal’ crime, especially
as the numbers given at Port Augusta were in some cases inflated by
the presence of family, groups committing any one particular ’crime’.

The stereotype is that Aborigines in general are ’often in trouble
with the law’.
r
Ч-

However, the stabilising effects of the schools can be seen in
the fact that delinquencies that came to court notice, on the
whole, happened in school holidays, and came up before the courts
2
in February and March .

See p. 1 above.

TABLE 4*

^zTable showing number of appearances of Aboriginal children
before the Children’s Court, Port Augusta, 1979-1980.

Figures provided by the Aboriginal Legal Aid Service, Pt. Augusta.

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