Hello!

14 Comments

School under fire after it failed to tell parents a teacher was convicted for child molestation.

Mum who found out via Twitter that a paedophile teacher had been working at her daughter’s school says she may never send her back, reports Courier Mail.

The mother, who does not wish to be named, says she found out about the allegations made by Senator Hinch on Twitter.

Redlands College has come under fire after it failed to tell parents and students that the recently resigned teacher had been convicted for child molestation.

In an explosive speech in the Senate last night, Derryn Hinch revealed Redlands College, Brisbane, failed to notify parents that a Year 2 teacher, who resigned at the end of term 3 last year, had been found guilty of indecent treatment of a child under the age of 16.

A Brisbane mother told AAP today: “I never, ever expected to find out via Twitter that there had been a teacher at that school that had abused a child – that’s not OK.

“I just couldn’t believe it, we were just in shock.”

Based on the information provided by Senator Hinch, the mother said she’s disgusted with Redlands College, which educates children from prep to year 12.

“They just completely swept it under the rug and just negated what’s happened,” the mother said.

Senator Hinch said the school community remained in the dark as to why the teacher had unexpectedly tendered his ­resignation.

“When a concerned parent wrote to the school principal to confirm the story – and to question whether there had been a cover-up – he received a series of letters from the school board chairman,” Senator Hinch said.

“Surely, if a teacher is charged and convicted and jailed for the prolonged sexual abuse of a student, the school has a duty to inform parents who that teacher is … And maybe alert them in case there were other victims.”

The Courier-Mail understands the charges related to a teenage student who had been groomed at a church Sunday school and that none of the abuse occurred on Redlands College grounds.

Redlands College principal Mark Bensley last night defended the decision to keep the school community in the dark about the conviction.

“Throughout the investigation and after the trial, we were specifically directed by police not to make any public statements or to notify the college community in order to protect the victim,” Mr Bensley said.

“Our thoughts and prayers are with the student. From the moment we learnt of these allegations, we provided the student and the family with ongoing support and counselling.”

Share your comments below.

Image stock photo

We may get commissions for purchases made using links in this post. Learn more.
  • So much for the Blue Card

    Reply

  • The parents should have been told about this. They didn’t have to say who the child was but they should have told the parents about the teacher. Thankfully they had the common decency to hand in their resignation.


    • I would think that they were ‘Asked’ to resign

    Reply

  • This is just shocking, so wrong.

    Reply

  • The Principal wasn’t concerned enough about his pupils that some of them could have been abused or an attempt made…and not reported it. The parents should have been notified and been assured that they teacher had been gaoled and wouldn’t not be returning to any school. I wonder if the Principal was immediately made aware of the reason for the teacher’s resignation. I’m sure the Police would have notified him though.

    Reply

  • Should not have been allowed to teach again. Bad that parents didn’t know.

    Reply

  • Concerning !!

    Reply

  • A huge concern for the students who attended his classes.

    Reply

  • What on earth. How did this guy get hired by the school to begin with? Aren’t they supposed to do checks?

    Reply

  • What, this is terrible! Thank goodness for working with vulnerable people checks, they must be renewed every 3 years! He must have been hired before these checks and recently found out, the whole community, school community and parents should have been notified though!

    Reply

  • we send our children to school expecting them to be safe so why did the school employ him in the first place. this is just disgusting specially as it in coming out all these months after the teacher resigned.

    Reply

  • so what is the point of the working with children police checks?

    Reply

  • I think parents should have been advised, but the school was in a difficult position if the police specifically told them not to.

    Reply

  • Oh! What a terrible way to find out. I think the school should have informed the parents.

    Reply

Post a comment
Add a photo
Your MoM account


Lost your password?

Enter your email and a password below to post your comment and join MoM:

You May Like

Loading…

Looks like this may be blocked by your browser or content filtering.

↥ Back to top

Thanks For Your Star Rating!

Would you like to add a written rating or just a star rating?

Write A Rating Just A Star Rating
Join