AUSTRALIA
The Guardian
Joshua Robertson
Monday 16 November 2015
It may be stained by the legacy of perhaps the most prolific child sex offender in the history of Queensland schools, but the state’s most prestigious old school tie still commands a hefty price.
A year at Brisbane Grammar costs about $25,000, 30% of the average full time worker’s pre-tax salary.
A few thousand dollars less buys a year at St Paul’s, the other elite Brisbane private school to come under the microscope in hearings by the royal commission into institutional responses to child sex abuse this month.
Grammar in particular retains a reputation as the state’s top school, with an alumni that peppers the top ranks of the local establishment.
This is no solace to the family of one victim of the school’s first ever student counsellor, Kevin Lynch, whose abuse of the boy was so severe he suffered an organic brain injury.
The school gave the former student an out-of-court compensation payout of $45,000, which would not cover two years at Grammar today.
His mother told the commission: “We wanted only the best for our children. What did we get for our money? We got the worst anyone could possibly imagine.”
Still, Grammar’s links to leading legal figures were on show during commission hearings in Brisbane, as were the complications this posed for former students seeking redress.
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