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The
Dominion Sunday Times
December 15, 1991.
Schools lack skills - expert
Few schools are equipped to deal with allegations of sexual abuse or neglect,
a member of the Christchurch
police child abuse squad says.
Detective Ken Legat said some schools had tried to do their own
investigations of sexual abuse allegations. They either did not tell the
police or left it so late the gathering of evidence was jeopardized.
He said teachers needed clear guidelines so they knew what action to take
when a child made a disclosure of abuse. When allegations were made schools
should seek advice from outside agencies such as the Social Welfare
Department and police child abuse units.
Convicted
Mr Legat said he knew of only two Christchurch
schools with policies on how to handle abuse.
In one case a teacher was convicted and imprisoned Police learnt about the
other incident from parents who were unhappy about the way the school had
handled the matter. No charges were laid because it was the teacher's word
against the girl's.
He was also concerned some school counsellors were taking confidentiality too
far. When children said they did not want anything done about abuse, some
counsellors felt duty bound not to tell anyone else and failed to consider
the risk to other youngsters.
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