An Australian mother has been charged after allegedly placing a listening device in her seven-year-old son’s pocket to find out why he was returning from school with bruises.
Skye Cooper said her son, who is autistic, non-verbal and has epilepsy, had also become increasingly distressed when she took him to a primary school in eastern Victoria.
She said he began refusing to leave the car and displaying behaviour he had never shown before attending the school. “When he came home with a couple of bruises, multiple times, we kept an eye on it,” the 36-year-old said.
Ms Cooper said she bought the device online after hearing of other parents using listening equipment to monitor their children. She claimed to have placed it in her son’s pocket each morning between June and October 2025.
After listening to the recordings, she alleged that a teacher’s aide who worked one-to-one with her son told him: “If you hurt me, I’ll hurt you.” Ms Cooper said the words were repeated at least three times.
“He copped a lot of verbal abuse from the teacher’s aide he was working with one-on-one,” she said. “It got worse, and you could hear him screaming in the recording. He was quite distraught.”
Ms Cooper said the aide initially denied using the words, but later sent an apology after the recordings were produced. In the letter, the aide said she could not specifically recall making the statement but was remorseful that it had been made.
“I clearly used words that I should not have used,” the aide said, according to the apology.
The allegations do not suggest that the aide was responsible for the child’s bruises. Ms Cooper said she removed her son from the school and enrolled him elsewhere, where he had been doing much better.
Mother says she was trying to protect her son
Using a listening device to record a private conversation without the consent of those involved is a criminal offence in Victoria.
Ms Cooper has now been charged with “regulation of installation, use and maintenance of a listening device” in connection with recordings made between September and October last year.
She told the ABC: “I was trying to protect my child. I just couldn’t make sense of it, that… the tables have been turned on me.”
Ms Cooper told the Herald Sun that she intended to fight the charge, which was scheduled to be heard at the La Trobe Valley Magistrates’ Court in February.
“It’s not even about the money, it’s the principle of it. Why am I the one getting punished?” she said.
She said police had told her that pleading guilty and donating 300 Australian dollars to a suitable charity would mean she would not be convicted. Police had initially interviewed her and released her without charge.
“I still would’ve done it. I think any mother would self-sacrifice to protect their child,” Ms Cooper said.
A spokesperson for Victoria’s Department of Education said: “The safety of students at school is our priority, and the priority of our educators.”
“We always urge parents or carers to raise any safety concerns directly with their school so they can be investigated fully,” the spokesperson added.
