Page 2608 - Week 09 - Wednesday, 8 August 1990
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and then suddenly breaking into tears as she realised the implications. That is not an isolated case.
Nor is the case of the children at Rivett. The special needs students there, the teachers and the parents believe that they were not known about. There seems to be no reference to them in enrolment numbers in the consideration of the Government. Whether for some reason or other the special needs children were set aside and only the mainstream enrolments considered, I do not know. Dr Kinloch can tell me about that. It may be that the Government or the administrators did not wish to include special needs in the mainstream. If that was the case, that has an effect on the special needs students, because they very much want to be seen as mainstream students. They want to be part of the school as a whole. Quite some effort in the administration of education is directed to making special stream students feel part of the mainstream. But at Rivett they do not know where they are going. Most of them in that area come from Rivett itself and they do not have any idea where they are going, and these are children who, more than most, need to have that sense of security.
What about the parents at Rivett who read in the Government's supporting document that the traffic along Hindmarsh Drive between Rivett and Duffy is not as heavy as elsewhere or something of that nature? It did not impress them. They are certainly aware, as I am, as one who has travelled on that road often enough, that traffic is quite heavy. But what is particularly worrying for the parents is that the road is very wide. It is four lanes with - - -
Mr Humphries: Not at the point we are talking about. It is not four lanes at Rivett.
MR WOOD: Hindmarsh Drive?
Mr Humphries: Hindmarsh Drive is only two lanes at Rivett, one in each direction.
MR WOOD: Well, I will go and have another look at it. It is a wide road because the night before last when I drove back that way - - -
Mr Humphries: At the very beginning of the suburb it is four; I think it narrows down to two.
MR WOOD: Yes, I know that - after the traffic lights at the main corner there. It is a very wide road, whatever the number of lanes. I have a clear memory of four. Perhaps I am wrong, but it is wide enough for the parents to be concerned. It is a wide road and it takes a long time for their children to get across. Added to that, the various underpasses are not well suited for a great number of parents in that area.
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