As I’ve asked before: when do we start spitting on teachers? It’s an exaggerated and rhetorical question, of course, but my point is that that is exactly what happened to priests in some areas. The rationale being the indeed shocking revelations that a small percentage of priests were horrific child abusers and that churches had conspired to cover this fact up for decades. So popular has been the repugnance heaped on the clergy and church, with the gleeful encouragement of the media, that it’s near impossible for a priest to say anything in public without being hit with a wall of sneering that he’s likely a paedophile.
Why isn’t the same abuse and vitriol heaped on the teaching profession? We know that child abuse is a rampant problem in teaching, probably far more so than the worst of the churches. Official reports in the US estimate that one in 10 public school children will experience ‘educator sexual misconduct’ in school, ranging from lewd comments to rape. Investigator Charol Shakeshaft estimates child abuse in schools to be “100 times” worse than in churches.
So, when do we start spitting on teachers?
Especially when we know for a fact – because they’ve admitted it – that education bureaucrats covered up for even the most prolific paedophile teachers, every bit as much as the churches ever did.
The Victorian Education Department has apologised to two children and their families who were failed by the official response to their sexual abuse at a state primary school.
An investigation by the Victorian Ombudsman has found failures in the department’s official procedures and policies, with Ombudsman Marlo Baragwanath urging officials to treat future complainants as “people, not litigants”.
The investigation, prompted by concern about the department’s response to two incidents of child sexual abuse at an unnamed Victorian primary school, will be tabled in state parliament today.
This is only just the tip of the iceberg of the paedo teacher and bureaucratic cover-up problem.
Survivors of a paedophile teacher who was moved around Victorian schools for decades received up to $34 million compensation from the state government – the highest payout linked to a state school offender.
Vincent Henry Reynolds was jailed in 2019 after he pleaded guilty to sexually abusing 38 children over three decades at state primary schools across north and central Victoria.
But, as one of his victims said, the damage could not be measured in monetary terms. Especially not when Reynolds, like other paedophile teachers, was allowed to prey on children for years with department complicity.
“He could have been stopped, and we could have been spared. It’s heartbreaking.”
Rightside Legal partner Grace Wilson said mismanagement by education authorities over the years had allowed Reynolds to wreak havoc on many lives.
“The mismanagement beggars belief. The cost to the state of repeatedly putting a sex offender back into the classroom is big, but the cost to the victims is much, much bigger,” Wilson said […]
Reynolds began abusing children from the start of his teaching career in 1960 at the age of 19 and continued until police eventually took action in 1992.
Reynolds was far from the only predator who was an open secret and shuttled around the public school system.
A convicted killer is suing his old Melbourne Catholic school, alleging sexual abuse he suffered there as a teenager set him on a path to a life of crime.
The case is part of a wave of hundreds of actions against Victorian schools over historical abuse claims by former students, with one law firm alone investigating more than 470 cases involving some 300 schools.
Whether this particular case is true – the accused headmaster vehemently denies it – or just a psychopath on the make (he was noted for a litany of bizarre, violent behavior as a student), the fact remains that this is just one of hundreds of cases, involving hundreds of schools. And that’s in Victoria alone. Tasmanian government investigations have uncovered similar patterns of abuse and cover ups: some going on to this day.
Separately, legal cases from former students alleging they were sexually abused at schools are flooding the courts.
One law firm, Arnold Thomas and Becker, is investigating more than 470 claims against about 300 private, public and Catholic schools – or more than 10 per cent of the state’s schools […]
“The legacy of abusive teachers is so vast that the biggest list in the Supreme Court of Victoria is dedicated to the management of survivors’ claims,” [Rightside Legal] partner Grace Wilson said.
Just as the Catholic church was accused of making inadequate redress to victims, the government education bureaucracy is accused of doing the same.
Kim Price, head of [Arnold Thomas and Becker’s] institutional abuse practice […] also warned people to be wary of the government’s redress scheme, after his firm launched a class action for compensation for abuse survivors who were allegedly short-changed by legal firm Knowmore Legal Service.
The churches have rightly had their feet held to the fire for what they did – and didn’t do. Why is the education system getting off without similar scrutiny from crusading media?
