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NZ Listener
November 2-8 2002
Published October 28, 2002
Letter to the Editor
By Kerr Inkson, Northcote
Auckland
When I read Lynley Hood's reference to the victimisation of
"teachers who abuse only themselves", I assumed that she was
referring to teachers being disciplined and dismissed for accessing
pornographic websites in private, using school computers. In the context
concerning "prurient computer technicians ...determining what responsible
adults should be allowed to see, read and hear", any reasonable person
would draw the same conclusion.
However, Dr John Read (Letters, October 26), without any evidence, takes the
reference to mean that Hood considers that the actions of "teachers who
have sex with their students" are unexceptionable. Hood said no such
thing. She is right to use the term "witch-hunt" in her article:
Read's one-eyed excoriation of her is a good demonstration of the process of
demonising more and more "witches".
Sexual abuse is a major problem that we all need to do everything in our
power to oppose. This opposition is not assisted by those who continue, in
the interests of "increasing our awareness" to defend the
pillorying of the innocent along with the guilty. Hood's meticulously researched
book shows clearly that there is no real evidence that Peter Ellis is a child
abuser. Her case is, so far, unanswered and appears unanswerable. It shows
serious inadequacies in the legal processes through which Ellis was
convicted. Witch-hunters would do us a better service if they could show us
any flaws in Hood's research.
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