AUSTRALIA
New Matilda
By Ben Eltham on November 5, 2015
As a student at Brisbane Grammar I heard stories of abuse. Then, as now, the school put its prestige and influence above all else, writes Ben Eltham.
The email arrived, out of the blue, several months ago.
It was from the chairman of my old school, Brisbane Grammar School. The subject was “Statement from Brisbane Grammar School regarding the Royal Commission.”
The school has been caught up in the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse.
“As a valued Old Boy,” the email read, “I wish to inform you of the impending involvement of the School in one of the many Case Studies which are being conducted by the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse around Australia.”
“The Royal Commission has now announced a public hearing in Brisbane from 3 November 2015, which will look at educational institutions in Queensland including our own, which relates to abuse by Kevin Lynch, our then student counsellor, in the 1970s and 1980s.”
I wasn’t surprised. When I attended the school in the early 90s, the reign of terror perpetrated by Lynch was still fresh in many memories. Though Lynch had left before I arrived, older boys who had been abused were still at the school. Rumours circulated. “Mr Lynch’s office” was a notorious phrase.
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