Sexual Abuse of Children by Other Children- Recent ‘sexualised behaviour’ at Sydney’s Trinity Grammar School

The prestigious Trinity Grammar School has been rocked by inappropriate sexualised behaviour among its Year One students. Six year old students victimising other six year olds.

It has been alleged that a 6 year old instigator encouraged three other boys to take their clothes off and engage in sex acts with at least four other victims in the school toilets and parts of the playground, while they were supposed to be supervised. The incidents occurred on a number of occasions.

Trinity Grammar claims it was contacted by a concerned parent in mid-November regarding the incidents and that it notified the Department of Family and Community Services (FACS) immediately. According to the Headmaster of Trinity Grammar, FACS requested that parents “not be advised while they were investigating”.

Year One parents are appalled that they were only told of the events in an email sent out by the Headmaster, after the school holidays had begun. The Headmaster then told the parents that they would not get a refund of their $18,000 fees for the following term if they removed their sons from the school.

After the meeting with the Headmaster, the school emailed the parents explaining the steps that they had taken while FACS conducted their investigation, including greater supervision of toilets and counselling.

The Headmaster has said the affected boys were offered counselling and that one child had been removed from the school by his parent.

In an attempt to re-assure the parents of the remaining children, Trinity has advised that it was increasing playground supervision of all K-2 students, making alterations to the playground to restrict access to areas that are hard to supervise, and considering physical alterations to the Junior School toilets that would balance the need for privacy with the need for supervision.

As set out in our article regarding child-on-child sexual abuse, the prevalence of this type of behaviour is alarmingly high. The response by Trinity Grammar, while it may be criticised by some as inadequate or slow, does provide a slither of hope that we are not going to repeat the errors of our past in responding appropriately to incidents such as this.

When you put it in perspective, the authorities were informed, the parents were notified, counselling was offered and they have acknowledged the need to change their procedures and practices in the school so that this behaviour does not occur again. After the way we know that our schools have responded to similar incidents in the past, Trinity’s response, though not perfect, should enable the most important thing to happen – which is acknowledging what took place so that the affected children can be provided with a caring, supportive and safe environment in the future.

The affected children may also have legal rights of redress against the school should they experience any continuing behavioural or emotional difficulties after the incidents.

Sherilyn Dunkley

Senior Associate