The Victorian Government announced yesterday it will establish a Board of Inquiry into Historical Child Sexual Abuse at Beaumaris Primary School in the 1960s and 1970s, and abuse by the same employees at other government schools. "The Board of Inquiry – which is independent of government – will establish an official public record of the experiences of victim-survivors of historical child sexual abuse by staff at Beaumaris Primary School more than five decades ago, as well as abuse perpetrated by the same staff members at other government schools.

• The response of the Department of Education during the 1960s and 1970s in relation to the historical child sexual abuse at Beaumaris Primary School at that time
• The most appropriate ways to support healing for victim-survivors, secondary victims and affected communities
• Whether support services for victim-survivors of historical child sexual abuse in government schools are effective, considering other inquiries and reforms that have taken place since the historical abuse occurred.
• Once established, the Board will develop processes for engaging with its work, alongside appropriate trauma-informed support for people who participate in the Inquiry – with details on how people can submit their stories to be released in the coming weeks."

Here is a summary of our response provided to the Victorian Department of Premier and Cabinet today.

Beaumaris Primary School is tragically not exceptional, in having historically employed multiple paedophiles at the same time. Paedophiles, like other criminals, are part of networks, and they support each other being employed / having access to institutions and organisations where children are present. We have knowledge of this happening in other  government schools, and we all have knowledge of how frequently this occurred in religious and other institutions.

Our community welcome the Government inquiry to investigate historical sexual abuse at Beaumaris Primary School. But we know that tragically, multiple paedophiles being employed at government schools wasn't isolated to BPS. So whilst we welcome this news, are hearts are heavy for so many other survivors and families of deceased victims, who were abused at government schools.

We support the call of Mr Brad Roswell, the member for Sandringham, for the Victorian Government's Inquiry to include all government schools, to understand the devastating scale of the Department of Education's failure to act to protect the children in their care. Without this knowledge, what will the Premier be apologising for later this year?

The processes of The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse used to engage with survivors, and families of deceased victims, and any other community members with knowledge of the abuse to share their stories, we believe must be adopted by the Board of Inquiry.

We currently have no way of knowing how many deaths of victims of child sexual abuse in Beaumaris, let alone in Victoria, are a direct consequence of their trauma. We hope the Board of Inquiry invest in engagement of communities to better understand the scale of the loss of life within their community, that is a direct result of being a victim of the crime of child sexual abuse.

The Victorian Government's statement:

“Establishing the Inquiry will give victim-survivors the opportunity to share their experiences on the public record – and will seek to provide a level of closure and healing for victim-survivors, secondary victims, and communities” 

isn't supported by evidence nor the experience of experts and peer support services.

Especially the decades of evidence that supports Dr Judith Hermans four stages of recovery from trauma.

1. “First, safety and agency must be re-established in a survivor’s life.
2. Second, survivors may review events, grieve and make meaning from what happened.
3. Third, they may once again begin to grow and re-engage with their community, with some ... using their tragedy to help make the world a better place. 
4. Now, in “Truth and Repair,” a beautiful, profound and important book, Herman explains that she has come to think of the fourth stage of recovery as “justice."

Justice: Acknowledgment, apology and amends. 

When victims of traumatic violence are not served by our systems of justice and when they are let down by their communities, as they almost always are, harm is heaped upon harm. Trauma is not just a psychological issue, she explains. It is a social one. Recovery cannot be simply a private, individual matter,” she writes. But recovery is complicated because the relationships of dominance and subordination that shape our society also shape the way justice is delivered."

Sharing experiences on the public record is the initial step of self-agency, which does not provide any closure. The devastating reality is the role of justice in healing, is significantly underplayed by Australian governments. 

The Victorian Government's statement that the Board of Inquiry will include identification:

"The most appropriate ways to support healing for victim-survivors, secondary victims and affected communities"

is offensive.

For 18 months the Victorian Government has refused to meet with our community, to discuss why they haven't implemented Recommendation 9.1, of the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse. The recommendation of the Royal Commission regarding community support services, that has subsquently been supported by recommendations of other Royal Commissions, Inquiries and Peak Bodies.

How Dr Hermans ‘Acknowledgment, Apology and Amends’ translates to the following actions of the Victorian Premier, and his Government. 

1. Acknowledgement = an Inquiry into historic child sexual abuse at all Victorian Government Schools.
   
   
2. Apology = apologising for the known scale of historic child sexual abuse at all Victorian Government Schools, and the impacts of the failure of the Department of Education to keep children in their care safe. 
   
   
3. Amends = The Victorian Government implements in full the recommendations of the Royal Commissions into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, and the recommendations of the Victorian Law Reform Commissions Report, Improving the Response of the Justice System to Sexual Offences. 

Our Community supports all survivors of child sexual abuse. The Victorian Government should too.