A victim-survivor of school sexual abuse has claimed Premier Jeremy Rockliff did not personally meet with her despite 16 requests for a meeting when he was education minister to discuss her concerns about the Education Department.
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The woman was groomed and abused by a public school teacher when she was in year 9 and 10 in the late 1990s, and received no follow-up from the school or department despite another teacher suddenly confronting her about the situation at the time.
She gave evidence at the Commission of Inquiry into institutional abuse in Tasmania on Tuesday, detailing how the school was aware of the inappropriate contact a teacher was having with her, but did not act, and even later placed her in his class.
The teacher was ultimately sentenced in court in 2020 after the woman made a full disclosure in 2018, and an initial disclosure in 2000. She described how the abuse and the lack of follow-up had impacted her life.
Commission of Inquiry into child sexual abuse in Tasmania:
- Girl first faced abusive teacher, then James Griffin at LGH
- Mother's LGH nurse complaint ignored, daughter left 'screaming'
- Tasmania to bring in US-style therapy for at-risk youth
- How a 'confusing' web of integrity bodies could harm oversight in Tasmania
- Tasmanian children put back in abusive homes due to system failure
While the matter was proceeding through court, the woman - now a school teacher herself - said she wrote to Mr Rockliff 16 times requesting a meeting and outlining her ongoing concerns about the Education Department.
She received two or three responses from Mr Rockliff declining her request due to the matter still being subject to criminal proceeding, and that he could not be seen to be involved.
She said she was then offered a meeting with the department's deputy secretary after her 16th letter, which occurred.
"It was not the person I wanted to speak with. I wanted to speak with whoever was ultimately responsible," she said.
"Who ultimately holds the can? That's who I wanted to talk to.
"I felt that I was palmed off to someone else to shut me up."
An apology was offered during that meeting, and the woman said she "felt heard".
After the criminal proceeding concluded and her abuser was jailed, she did not hear back from Mr Rockliff, she said.
"When the criminal case was finished, particularly when I went to the media and said 'look it was me, I hold no shame, neither should you', he was still the minister for education at that point, but he did not contact me and say 'let's have that conversation now'," she said.
Her requests for a meeting with Mr Rockliff were to receive an ultimate admission of wrongdoing and an apology from the government in regards to her case, and that this could only come from the minister.
She said she still wanted an apology from Mr Rockliff, and that this would be "exceptionally important".
"But that apology now extends to a greater number of things," she said.
"I don't want a generic apology. I don't want a sweeping apology. We speak to students about making apologies and when you make an apology, you don't just say you're sorry, you say what are you sorry for and what can I do to help, what can I do to rectify it?
"For me, that apology needs to be more than just that they're sorry that I was abused in their institution. They need to be sorry that I was abused in their institution, and they chose to ignore it, and they chose not to follow it up ... and they need to name up exactly what it is they're sorry for.
"Because I don't want a hollow 'I'm sorry'. What are you sorry for? Because not only have I been devastated by the abuse, the fallout that I've had to deal with since has made it so much worse."
She has not been identified as per a non-publication order restricting information that could identify the school she attended or the perpetrator.
Mr Rockliff said he is "deeply sorry" for what has occurred to the woman.
"I did have correspondence with [the woman] in 2019, however, given the case was being assessed by the DPP I was advised that it was not appropriate to meet with her until the outcome of the criminal justice process.
"I instead arranged the Department of Education deputy secretary to meet with [the woman] to discuss any concerns and provide a full apology. My last correspondence from [the woman] was a thank you letter following this meeting.
"With the commission's hearings underway, we must allow the process to take its course, independent of government."
Abusive teacher was told to 'watch himself', victim says
The woman detailed the way in which the teacher groomed her and then started to abuse her in a room in the school.
The year after the abuse started, she said another teacher suddenly pulled her aside while in class and told her it had "been noticed" that she was spending a lot of time with the teacher and that "it is not normal".
"To which I was mortified, I was so scared," she said.
When she ran from the classroom in tears, no teacher followed up with her.
"The abuse continued, he did not desist. I was the one that was expected to make it stop. I was the one that made it stop," she said.
She was later told that the teacher had also been approached, but was only told to "watch himself".
"Not that his action were inappropriate, what he was doing was criminal, 'watch yourself'. In other words, keep doing it, just do it better so no one noticed, will you? That's how I read that," she said.
"To me essentially it reeks of the boys club. He was one of his male colleagues, and you know, that he could do what he wanted. He wasn't going to get in trouble because he's part of the understanding, part of the group, part of the inner workings of this school."
Sexual assault support services:
- Sexual Assault Support Service (Tasmania): 1800 697 877
- Lifeline (24-hour crisis line): 131 114
- Tasmania's Victims of Crime Service: 1300 300 238
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