Families join forces over school sex assaults

12:00a.m. 27th June 2008

Twelve Sunshine Coast families have now rallied to seek justice following more claims of sexual assaults committed by school children on younger victims in local schools.

The grandmother of one boy allegedly abused at a hinterland primary school is heading the campaign.

She said in every case, parents felt their children had not been protected by various authorities but had thought it was an isolated incident.

The families have been particularly scathing of Education Queensland and the Department of Child Safety.

“We’re calling on more parents in the same situation to come forward,” she said.

“Every one of them so far has said: ‘We thought we were alone.’

“A lot of them think they should just let sleeping dogs lie.”

State Child Safety Minister Margaret Keech has not responded to requests for an interview.

Instead, her office issued a statement saying that the Department of Child Safety could not become involved if the parents of the abused child were willing and able to protect them.

Shadow child minister Jann Stuckey said this was unacceptable.

“I’m appalled Margaret Keech has been invisible on this issue,” she said.

“We have statistics that say people who are abused as children often grow into abusers themselves. This is a very big social problem.

“It is not acceptable for parents to be fobbed off like this and just literally bandied from one department to another because no one knows whose job it is.”

On Tuesday, the families received an invitation to attend an urgent meeting to discuss the matter with Education Queensland’s executive director of schools Suzanne Pearce and the regional executive director Robin McAlpine.

Recent Comments

Add a comment

Posted by gypsy_girl_72 from little mountain

on 27 June, 2008 at 5:30 a.m. ( Suggest removal )

What amazes me is not only that this has occured but that apparantly child safety can't do anything about it if the parents of the abused child are willing to protect them.What about the offenders,does that mean they just do nothing and don't look into why the offending children behaved this way?

Sexuality is a learned behaviour,children aren't born with sexual knowledge.This knowledge is taught to them in one form or another,in young chidren more often then not is a sign they are being sexually abused either within the confines of thier homes or by someone outside the home who has regular contact with the child.It is soo very true that most children that are abused as children become abusers to.

More should be done and can be done.It's disgusting that they can just wipe they're hands of this and say the parents are protecting them.Imagine how helpless these parents feel at not having been able to protect thier child from this happening.Why aren't the department of child safety offering counselling to the victims and more support.The excuse to me just doesn't cut it.More should be done to protect these children and to help them through the traumatic event that has occured.

It's sad to see what our society has become.One of my children was fondled by another boy in his class here on the sunshine coast and when I spoke to the school I was basically ignored.I have since been told that the school have a duty to call child safety,yet we were never interviewed about the matter.Of course my child no longer attends the school in witch it occured but as far as I could see nothing was done about the matter.In fact the teacher herself basically blamed my child and said it was something boys do.

My child has since been diagnosed with Aspergers Syndrome and part of that condition is he doesn't like to be touched or touch other people.Certainly makes me wonder how it was he was to blame.I'm glad to say he now goes to a very good school and has become a much happier and secure child.

Posted by DerekatBooroobin from Booroobin

on 27 June, 2008 at 9:22 a.m. ( Suggest removal )

Education Queensland is well known for its centralised bureaucratic controls.

Ask Education Queensland, and the its Regional Director to explain the following:
- where are the independent inspectors who can go into Schools, and assess that the practices conform with societal expectations and norms and departmental procedures (didn't the Teachers Union and others work to remove these hopefully independent assessors years ago?);
- where is the departmental complaints handling procedures - that families who choose to enrol their children in state schools can access and avail themselves of when necessary without being unnecessarily dissuaded from using by bureaucratic pressure or threats;
- where are the regular periodic reporting of complaints to a central office or Parliament, how they were handled, and the satisfaction or not of complainants with the outcomes of how their complaints were handled;
- why is there confusion between the roles of schools, child safety and Police in responding to and investigating issues which on the surface may relate to crimes;
- why is there not an independent Ombudsman available through Education Queensland to whom unresolved complaints can be referred and resolved to the satisfaction of complainants.

Education Queensland pontificates about its role in education, but like Caesar judging Caesar, no-one outside the layers of its heavily heirarchical bureaucracy know what is really happening. The Queensland Auditor General has sought and recommended complaints handling procedures, and I would add they ought to apply to all schools and centralised summary reporting of complaints (taking account of the need for privacy issues to be respected), and its regular tabling in Parliament, but I wonder whether the bureaucrats want such real information to be released publicly.

The public does not know what the Department and its Minister will not tell us, and is reluctant to or will not release, without public pressure to do so. It is in the public interest to know what is happening in taxpayers fully funded state schools and that the needs of the people choosing State Schools are being fulfilled and are simply not fobbed off when school authorities don't want to address or can't see real issues.

Posted by poppo from Noosa

on 27 June, 2008 at 9:46 a.m. ( Suggest removal )

How can it be SO very true that most abused children become abusers themselves?

I think you'll find that the correct comment is that most child abusers have been victims of abuse themselves.

BIG difference in the 2 statements and if we all went with yours then we should just get a branding iron out now and brand all abused children potential Paedos.

I'm sorry for whats happened to your child and you are correct in all your other comments especially that they should look into why the children learned this behaviour. It looks like there are not enough people with true common sense in the relevant authorities to spot these things. And as for the schools!!???!!

Posted by gypsy_girl_72 from little mountain

on 27 June, 2008 at 4:05 p.m. ( Suggest removal )

Yes Correct poppo,I just worded it wrong I guess.

Have your say

We welcome comments on our stories and blogs - after all it's your site. Please note comments should be on-topic and not abusive. Comments are checked before publication.

Not Registered? Quick registration and comment.