SA education boss calls for inquiry into latest school sex scandal
SA education boss calls for inquiry into latest school sex scandal
South Australia’s new education chief has defied the government by asking for a top level inquiry into the latest school sex scandal.
Premier Jay Weatherill maintains the case of a girl who was allegedly indecently assaulted by another student is being dealt with adequately - but education department chief executive officer Tony Harrison thinks not.
He has asked the ombudsman to investigate why emails sent to the department by the girl’s parents went unopened.
It comes as a former department legal chief - described as belligerent for keeping parents in the dark over a rape at another school - faced a parliamentary inquiry today.
Don Mackie is now subject to disciplinary proceedings.
The Royal Commission into the saga strongly criticised his dealings with the school’s parent council.
“It’s not my nature to be abusive towards members of the public,” he said.
With the possibility there could have been other young victims, it remains a mystery why the offender convicted of the abuse was not identified to all parents.
Mr Mackie said he wanted to prevent angry parents on the council from getting themselves into potentially costly legal strife.
He now fears he will be seen ‘as the brain-dead public servant who didn’t care about children’, but said that is not the case.
Meanwhile, another department official today told the inquiry Jay Weatherill’s staff had instructed officials not to pass on all reports of critical incidents in schools – just the more serious ones.
