St Peter’s fronts up over abuse
A prominent Waikato secondary school has front-footed the discovery of historical sexual abuse ‘‘to step forward and do the right thing’’, says its board chair.
An investigation uncovered 19 alleged incidents of historical abuse at St Peter’s School in Cambridge between 1936 and 1981, relating to eight former staff members.
One of those – a 73-year-old former teacher – pleaded not guilty to 10 historical indecent assault charges involving seven victims in Hamilton District Court yesterday.
Trust board chairperson John Macaskill-Smith said being honest, transparent, and supporting the victims was a no-brainer.
‘‘As a group of humans we were concerned when the first reports came up. It became really clear as an institution the right thing hadn’t been done.’’
The school acknowledged and apologised for the instances of staff abuse in November last year.
‘‘Often institutions jump to protect themselves rather than the individuals involved. We wanted to be people first.’’
He said the school’s trust board was made up of parents, professional directors, and people from all walks of life – who all agreed being open and transparent was important.
Another high-profile school, Auckland’s Dilworth, has also been rocked by historic sex abuse charges over the last year, but Macaskill-Smith said the St Peter’s board had concentrated on its own response.
‘‘We did look at what happened elsewhere, but we wanted it to be about how we would want this to go down if it was involving us and our children.
‘‘Families trust us with their young people. We need to be open and transparent.’’
Macaskill-Smith said it was important the victims, who were in the care of St Peter’s at the time, were supported and helped forward.
It was the school’s acknowledgement and apology that prompted alumni to come forward, he said.
Some cases were very historical – where all the involved parties were dead – but some were more recent.
‘‘We fully support alumni who have come forward. The school trust board wants to assure them we have been co-operating fully
with NZ police, and we will continue to do so,’’ he said.
Macaskill-Smith said a number of other students had reached out to talk about other incidents that the school wasn’t aware of as well.
‘‘We really encouraged and supported those people to take that to the place they felt is the most appropriate.’’
For some that meant reporting incidents to the police, but for others talking through what happened and receiving acknowledgement from the school was enough.
Macaskill-Smith said teachers were helping to shape the minds of tomorrow, and an environment where those children felt safe and trusted was crucial.
‘‘We want to understand and address what had occurred.’’
He said over the last few years the school had changed its physical environment to remove closed spaces, instead opening up its campus to get rid of ‘‘risky’’ areas.
Student-voice mechanisms had been implemented for students to raise issues without the traditional power imbalances of a young person reporting an incident to a teacher.
Macaskill-Smith said training was also ongoing to make sure staff could identify situations that looked or felt problematic.
St Peter’s also had counsellors and two chaplains on-site who were wellconnected with the students, he said.
‘‘We feel confident we have created an environment that is as safe as it can be.’’
He said the school had received lots of positive feedback about its response to the instances of staff abuse – including from people not connected with the school.