AUSTRALIA
Manny Waks
4/8/2016
The letter below was recently sent by the Adass Israel School to its community. This school has been embroiled in the Malka Leifer affair. While the letter is a welcome development, and contains both positive and important information, there are two glaring omissions.
Firstly, there is no acceptance of responsibility or an unequivocal apology – for that matter, there is no apology whatsoever. From the victims’ perspective, the letter would be meaningless, if not downright offensive.
Secondly, the encouragement to report allegations of child sexual abuse is vague. Adass should have made it absolutely clear that community members must report all allegations directly to the police. Indeed this requirement should have been supported with a clear endorsement by their most senior rabbis.
I suspect these omissions were deliberate, which is disappointing. Nevertheless, this letter is at least a positive development.
27 July 2016
Dear Parent and Community Members
We wish to advise the community of the steps we have taken to comply with the Government’s Child Safe Standards, which aims to change the culture in organisations to enhance the protection of children from abuse, including prevention and effective response. We strongly support and accept these measures.
We are pleased to advise many of the requirements have been in place for some years and we are ready for legal compliance on 1 August 2016. A copy of the Adass Israel School statement of commitment and associated policies and procedures are available for perusal at the School Office. The process will involve continual review and we will keep you up to date with progress in terms of the enhancement of our policies and procedures.
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