Police call for school sex case alerts to be issued to parents

State Education Minister Grace Portolesi. Picture: Brooke Whatnall 

POLICE have joined community groups and child abuse experts in demanding parents be told about any incidents of sex abuse in schools. 

The calls increase pressure on the Education Department, which allegedly gagged a western suburbs school council from telling parents about a staff member who was convicted of the sexual assault of a student in 2010.

Department policy does not require disclosure of sexual abuse in schools.

Education Minister Grace Portolesi said yesterday she was not aware if the department had pressured the school into keeping details of the abuse secret but would appoint "within days" someone to head an independent investigation into the incident.

"I am committed to getting to the bottom of what has transpired," she said.

The State Ombudsman has also been investigating the matter since March.

Mark Christopher Harvey of Largs North was convicted in February this year of unlawful sexual intercourse with a young girl in 2010 while she was attending his out-of-hours school care program.

Child protection expert UniSA Emeritus Professor Freda Briggs said parents on the school's governing council approached her about a year ago because they were unhappy parents had not been informed.

"They were concerned because they claimed that an administrator from the department had banned them from telling other parents what had happened," she said.

"They were concerned because they thought there could be other victims."

Ms Portolesi said she had no knowledge of other cases where parents were kept in the dark.

Prof Briggs said it was not the first time she had been told that claims of sexual abuse were being kept secret.
Ms Portolesi has been under fire this week after she told Parliament on Tuesday her department had kept details of Harvey's misdemeanours secret on the advice of police.

SA Police later released a statement rejecting that and yesterday a police spokesperson told The Advertiser parents had a right to know if allegations or charges had been levelled against a teacher or staff member.
"SAPOL believes that guardians and parents of children placed in a position of potential harm should be made aware of incidents such as these," the spokesperson said.

"This is so they have the appropriate information to assess whether their child may have been a victim of abuse.

"It also gives parents an avenue to voice or share concerns and information with the school.
"While there may be times where SAPOL requests some evidentiary information is withheld, as it may impact the ongoing investigation or judicial process, that would certainly not preclude generic details being given."

SA Association of State School Organisations director David Knuckey said he had been flooded with calls expressing outrage that such information was withheld.

"If the current policy does not require parents to immediately be informed when their child has been at risk, it should be changed," he said.

SA Association of School Parent Clubs president Jenice Zerna said schools must be "open and transparent" with parents.

The State Ombudsman has also been investigating since March.

Departmental policy is to deal with schools and police to decide on action following incidents, Ms Portolesi said, but it depended on "the circumstances surrounding the individual case" as to whether parents were notified.

A spokeswoman for Premier Jay Weatherill, who was education minister when the 2010 incident occurred, said he found out about the case on Tuesday.

In Parliament he said the Government did need to explain to parents why it kept the information secret.