When the dark history of Victoria’s education department was laid bare this week in public hearings, Glen Fearnett sat metres away from bureaucrats as they divulged the state’s failings to protect children.
Fearnett is a victim-survivor of abuse and has been central in pushing for a formal apology for the abuse he and other victim-survivors suffered at Beaumaris primary school, in Melbourne’s south-east.
Despite his own experience, he says he was still shocked to hear the revelations this week at an inquiry investigating historical abuse allegations at 24 Victorian government schools from the 1960s to 1990s.
Most disturbing was the admission that the department of education’s longstanding practice was to move teachers accused of sexual abuse of children to smaller government schools. This occurred until the 1990s, and often without their new principals knowing about the allegations unless they heard rumours or speculation.
“I thought it was quite damning before and it’s gone to a different level,” Fearnett says.
“It’s unbelievably sad that nobody cared. That they put the reputation of teachers, schools, departments, ahead of little kids. It’s almost a loss of words – how could you do that?”
Fearnett, who has worked as a teacher for more than 30 years, says the department’s inaction and determination to protect the reputation of schools above child welfare has shaken his belief in the education system.
“More challenging than anything is that betrayal,” he says.
“I’ve worked with some really great people and I think all of us get tarnished with this. It’s just horrible. Maybe time will heal that, but it’s incredibly sad.”
Four paedophile teachers identified by inquiry
The inquiry – announced by the Victorian government in June – is investigating allegations of historical child sexual abuse at Beaumaris during the 1960s and 1970s, and at 23 other government schools where the alleged perpetrators also worked until 1999.
The inquiry has identified four perpetrators including David Ernest Keith MacGregor, convicted of multiple charges related to child sexual abuse, and Grahame Harold Steele, who was never convicted and died in 2013. The other two perpetrators cannot be named for legal reasons. The inquiry has identified 44 child abuse complaints linked to the four men although the true number could be higher.
The inquiry this week shone a light on MacGregor who was convicted of child abuse in the 1980s but continued to be employed by the department until his retirement in 1992.
The department was first alerted to accusations against MacGregor, including that he was being investigated by police, via a letter from concerned parents in February 1985. At the time he was teaching at Kunyung primary school in Mount Eliza. He had previously worked at Beaumaris for nine years until 1976.
Despite the letter, he continued to teach until May 1985 and was later moved into a non-teaching position after the charges in 1985. After his three-year teaching ban lapsed, he was offered a teaching position at another school in 1989. This did not eventuate as the principal of the school objected, having learned of MacGregor’s convictions.
The department’s deputy secretary, Dr David Howes, acknowledged that the historical “default setting” by the department was to place the interests of teachers above the safety and welfare of the children.
The hearings outlined a litany of systemic failures by the department. The department historically had an absence of policies to respond to allegations of abuse and a lack of training for teachers to identify early warning signs of abuse.
While processes to remove perpetrators from teaching existed, they were rarely used, the inquiry heard.
“There appears to have been a culture of overlooking child sexual abuse and preferencing the reputation of schools, systems and teachers and their ongoing employment over the safest and wellbeing of children,” counsel assisting Fiona Ryan SC said on Friday.
“This was despite children, parents and teachers making allegations or reporting abuse perpetrated by the relevant employees.”
‘Catastrophic failures’
Howes labelled the department’s lack of action on child sexual abuse a “dreadful failure” that caused immeasurable harm.
The department’s practice of redeploying teachers accused of abuse to other government schools has shocked Fearnett.
“How someone can be charged, have convictions, and be appointed to teaching jobs? How does that happen?” he says.
On Friday, the department head, Jenny Atta, apologised for “catastrophic failures” in protecting children who had suffered historical sexual abuse in government schools. Atta said she was “profoundly sorry” for the “shocking abuse and injury inflicted on victim-survivors”.
“Our schools and the department of education failed to protect you when you were a child,” she said.
Atta pointed to current practices including mandatory reporting to protect children from abuse and said internal discussions were under way to consider options for memorials to pay tribute to the victim-surviviors.
Pressed on the department’s investigating of the full extent of abuse in government schools, Atta said it had focused on responding to civil claims. She also pointed to the complexities when police were still investigating in some cases.
Fearnett is adamant the department must be transparent about the scale of abuse at other government schools.
“Our ambition is to make sure that everyone at all the different schools has the ability to speak up and [receive] an apology,” he says.
“It’s incumbent on the education department to clear all of the information that they have, on all of the offenders, across all of the schools. Not just this bit.
“I think somewhere in the department they know how many offenders there were.”
Before he resigned as premier, Daniel Andrews had pledged to deliver a formal apology to recognise abuse victim-survivors who had attended Beaumaris primary school, and described the abuse as “vile, evil and incredibly damaging”.
The apology will be separate to a wider apology the premier, Jacinta Allan, is due to deliver later this month that will recognise historical child abuse in institutional care settings like orphanages.
The inquiry is due to report to the government by the end of February.
In Australia, children, young adults, parents and teachers can contact the Kids Helpline on 1800 55 1800, or Bravehearts on 1800 272 831, and adult survivors can contact Blue Knot Foundation on 1300 657 380. In the UK, the NSPCC offers support to children on 0800 1111, and adults concerned about a child on 0808 800 5000. The National Association for People Abused in Childhood (Napac) offers support for adult survivors on 0808 801 0331. In the US, call or text the Childhelp abuse hotline on 800-422-4453. Other sources of help can be found at Child Helplines International
