A Mother's Wait for Justice
In 2021, Annie Shannon's son Jayledon was killed when his teacher, Ian De Silva, rolled a 4WD while doing fishtails on the side of the road.
They were heading back from a school excursion.
The school Jayledon attended in Angurugu, a small community on Groote Eylandt, closed down.
After the accident, parents didn't feel safe sending their children back.
Now kids from Angurugu community travel thirty minutes to the mining town of Alyangula to go to school.
Every day they pass the site where Jayledon was killed.
There were five children in the car on the day of the accident.
No one was wearing seatbelts when De Silva lost control of the school-owned 4WD Landcruiser.
It flipped over, throwing Jayeldon from the vehicle and trapping him beneath it.
The family struggled to understand how this could happen.
How could they send their child off on a school excursion, only for him to return dead?
What was Mr. De Silva thinking, doing fishtails on a dirt road to impress primary school kids?
For two years the family waited for Mr. De Silva to appear in court. No one let them know what was happening with the case.
The Education Department offered no counselling or support.
The family built a roadside memorial for Jayledon where he was killed.
For a long time, Annie struggled to get out of bed.
She visits Jayeldon at the cemetery every Sunday – and stays for the day.
Jayledon's grandmother, Gail Lalara, helped raise him, but she says he took care of her as well.
“He used to look after me when I was sick. That’s the kind of boy he was.”
A teacher printed out a picture of Jayledon, smiling and excited at a school science day.
Jayledon's other grandmother, Wendy, stuck it on a piece of green card.
The family want to see Mr. De Silva go to jail for what he did.
Instead, when he finally appears in court, more than two years after Jayledon's death, he is given one year's house arrest.
The family aren't called to court to offer victim statements.
No one calls the family to let them know the outcome of Mr. De Silva's court appearance.
It's like they don't exist and the case is just a routine prosecution.
Would it be the same if they lived in a big city, or if they were white?
Jayeldon’s niece, Ziannita Lalara, 2, was born just after Jayledon was killed.
She will never know him, but she will know his story.
She will grow up with the knowledge that her uncle was killed by his teacher, and no one seemed to care.