BishopAccountability.org

Royal Commission: North Queensland school failed student after indecent assault by boys

By Isobel Roe And David Chen
ABC News
August 22, 2017

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-08-22/shalom-college-royal-commission-findings/8829830

Shalom Christian College is an Indigenous boarding school.

Mr Lloyd investigated the case in the royal commission last November.

Shalom Christian College's current principal, Christopher England, gives evidence to the royal commission.

A north Queensland Indigenous boarding school did not have the money to properly care for a student after she was indecently assaulted by older boys, according to the findings of a lawyer assisting a child sex abuse inquiry.

The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse heard in November last year that the 14-year-old girl was assaulted by four boys behind a classroom at Shalom Christian College near Townsville in 2006, when the students were supposed to be in the boarding house.

The victim's parents told the royal commission that after the incident, the boys were put into lockdown at the school, and their daughter sent to another school campus and offered no counselling or care.

The findings, by counsel assisting the royal commission David Lloyd, were released on Monday

He recommended that the royal commission find the school failed the girl, referred to as CLF in the inquiry, and did not properly support her parents.

"[The parents felt the former principal] was trying to persuade them to not go through with charges, and said that the boys who had assaulted CLF 'were from very influential Indigenous families in Townsville', Mr Lloyd said in his findings.

Furthermore, 10 years on the school still did not have enough money to provide a safe environment for its students.

In response, the Uniting Church, which runs the college, has refuted claims it did not offer support for the girl but admitted it did not receive enough government funding to keep its students safe.

It has also agreed the school at the time of incident could not guarantee the safety of its students because of the low staff-to-student ratio.

"As at March 2006 and continuing, the funding available to Shalom is not sufficient for it to meet the needs of the ... students, so that it may maintain a safe boarding environment for students who have particular vulnerabilities by reason of social disadvantages and health," the church's submission said.

"There have been ongoing challenges to secure appropriate and adequate funding to address the multi-factorial issues and needs of the Shalom Christian College student cohort."

The church claimed that immediately after the alleged assault of CLF it applied to the Child Safety Department to hire an extra counsellor to work with Indigenous students who had been subject to sexual abuse, but that the application was knocked back.

Shalom Christian College had recently been approved to install cameras in common areas of its boarding house in addition to cameras on school grounds, the submission revealed.

The school had also trained 152 staff in child protection and implemented an extensive number of social programs.

The Uniting Church said it would welcome "any advice and recommendations the royal commission makes".

The boys were acquitted of rape in 2011 and found guilty of the alternative charge of indecent treatment of a child under 16 with no convictions recorded.

 




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