Photo: RNZ
Content warning: This story contains discussion of the physical and sexual abuse of children.
- Students at Van Asch College and Kelston School for the Deaf endured serious sexual abuse, including rape and sexual assault, by staff and older children.
- One man says he was pinned against the wall and choked by the principal while a teenager.
- Police will not say whether they are still investigating perpetrators.
- Survivors say staff swept complaints under the carpet.
Survivors of abuse at New Zealand's former deaf schools say next week's government apology will mean nothing without prosecutions against staff and fellow students who carried out physical and sexual attacks.
One says a violent teacher who they wanted to be charged for assaults at Auckland's Kelston School for the Deaf has recently died.
The Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care found authorities failed to investigate offences, with up to 80 students wanting to make a police complaint about a Kelston teacher.
One man told RNZ said he was held up by the neck against a wall by the then-principal when he boarded at Van Asch College in Christchurch.
Another survivor, Julie*, said she complained to staff and police to no avail. She found out years later that a senior staff member at Van Asch had known she was being sexually assaulted while she was a day student there in the 1990s and early 2000s, she said.
"The staff ignored it, neglected what was going on," she said.
"And they didn't take action or help the victims, for example I had a bad experience with another student from the age of 13 to 18. And it involves sexual abuse, physical abuse and harassment. There was a student who would stalk me. Something really bad happened when I was 15 and I stopped eating.
"But the school didn't really pay attention to those signals. They were seeing how they could kind of help the other student who was a perpetrator, like psychology appointments or whatever it was. But with me, the victim, I was neglected.
"They didn't ever tell the police what happened, it was all just swept under the carpet. There were more instances of sexual abuse starting from when I was five years old. And the teachers weren't keeping an eye on the students, just couldn't be bothered with what was happening with us. Morning tea time, lunch time, break times - we were left to our own devices, and that's when the abuse happened."
She made a complaint to police while she was still at school. "The police interviewed the person who had abused me - and there was no evidence at the end of the day, so nothing could be done and the case was closed. The abuse still happened."
He texted her a sexually explicit message referring to what he had done that she took back to police as evidence, but was told it was not enough to charge him, she said. She was sexually harassed by a male teacher for months, and when another student reported it to two teachers, the principal took no action.
When she was five, she was told that a teenager had forced himself on a five-year-old boy, she said.
"There wasn't a separation of the ages. There wasn't monitoring, there wasn't any communication that happened. There was nothing, there wasn't anyone being sat down one-on-one and having a conversation about what had happened. None of that happened."
Staff needed to be far more focussed on sexual misconduct because the culture of violence was being continued through generations of children, she said. She believed there had been improvements since her time at the school, which ended in the early 2000s.
A teacher aide told Julie years afterward that a senior leader knew about her abuse. "She told me and I lost the plot. I drove over to Van Asch and really let them have it. The [staff member] was crying. She said sorry, she was crying. She admitted it. That's not good enough."
'I've had an awful life'
SM* boarded at Van Asch from the ages of 14 to 18, in the 1980s.
"The staff were awful and cruel," he said.
"They had so much power over the boarders and they used that power. A lot of things happened to myself and also to other boys as well.
"One staff member used to twist your arm up behind your back, they would grab me by my neck and beat me up. When I got in trouble as a boarder, I often got sent to the principal's office. The principal would grab me and hold me against the wall, push me up while holding my neck and accuse me.
"I was very, very scared of that man. He was very violent to me and I remember I was bruised from where he held me around my neck. And I've still got these memories very clearly. I will never ever forget what happened to me."
It was only after he left that he came to realise it was abuse, he said.
"Boarding was the worst time of my life. I remember being punched in the face by a student, bleeding, I remember getting cut in the head. There was a lot of violence there.
"But when the violence happened, there was nothing I could do to tell ... I was scared that I didn't have the ability to speak, that my family wouldn't believe me anyway. I wish I had spoken up."
Both survivors said the education itself was poor and staff and police inaction after abuse complaints had caused further trauma.
"The staff would see some abuse happening and they would laugh," SM said. "If staff were to see the abuse, why did they not speak? Why didn't they jump in and stop it? Why did they just leave them - on their watch? It's so not right.
"Communication was such that no-one understood what I was saying, sign language wasn't as widely used then. My mum tried to tell me one time, she must have had a gut instinct about it, she asked if something happened. But I couldn't communicate with her. And I know that it's not their fault, my parents, because we were not signing and we were forced to be that way. So I would try and talk, but it just was too hard."
SM has suffered from PTSD, but his attempts to get compensation since 1991 had come to nothing. He had also made a complaint to the Deaf Association.
Survivors said there had been a suggestion that compensation would be set at $10,000.
"That's not nearly enough - that would not be enough to cover the hurt, the physical abuse or sexual assault, the impact it's had on my life is so much more than that," SM said.
"It's been an awful life."
Julie said the sexual attacks she endured had left lasting scars, including complex PTSD.
"It's affected me in many, many ways. Romantic relationships, it has had an impact there. There's a lot of triggers for me. I get a lot of flashbacks. I have anger. At the start I made many, many complaints and the staff became fed up and so they ignored me. I'm angry, because what happened to me has affected me a lot, even in my adult life."
Apologies
The government apology to those who suffered abuse and neglect in state care is on Tuesday at Parliament, with an accessible livestream.
The inquiry earlier heard that children were raped, sexually assaulted, neglected and verbally abused by staff and other students at the schools and boarding facilities. Kelston and Van Asch schools merged in 2020 to become Ko Taku Reo.
"Boarders were particularly at risk and frequent abuse in this environment was experienced," the inquiry report said.
Some staff wilfully ignored what was occurring and failed to protect younger children. This occurred in both the boarding hostels and the schools, the inquiry found.
"Parents of Deaf children were discouraged from communicating with their children using Sign Language, resulting in generations of Deaf children who were unable to communicate with their parents, including being unable to communicate complaints of abuse."
Ko Taku Reo executive principal Denise Powell said it would make public statements with the Ministry of Education, which had not indicated what redress or outcomes there may be.
As Ko Taku Reo board chair in 2022, she delivered an apology to survivors of Van Asch and Kelston on behalf of the school at the inquiry, including the decades when children were punished for using sign language.
"We are sorry for the physical violence and harm that you endured. We are sorry for the sexual abuse that you endured. We are sorry for the emotional and psychological damage and trauma that you endured," she said at the time.
"We acknowledge the tremendous pain and loss that each of you carry. We may never fully appreciate the long-term consequences of the abuse that you experienced while in our care.
"We accept that what is shared through this hearing is a representative fraction of stories that are sometimes known to survivors alone. We want to assure you today that we are determined to learn from these dark chapters in our past. We know that it's not enough simply to be sorry. Our sorrow must be accompanied by restorative action."
Julie said she wanted an apology from the abuse perpetrators, and for them to face justice.
"To be honest the [government] apology, that's good but it's not enough. Once the apology is done and dusted, people are still going to be suffering. Those victims are still affected.
"Apologising on behalf of the perpetrators means nothing. I want to see all of the abusers brought to account, made to apologise. I want to see that and I want to see compensation - $10,000 is not enough. We who have experienced abuse for many, many years, how can $10,000 possibly cover that, how we were damaged? You know, years of therapy and a myriad of things."
She also wanted apologies from staff who knew what was happening and did not act.
"The staff members who saw other people, like other students abusing other students and turned a blind eye and ignored it, I would ask them 'Would you ignore it if this was happening to your children'? And if their response is 'No, of course I wouldn't', I would ask them, 'Why not? Why did you allow this to happen to other people's children?'
Some staff did act, but police took it no further, the inquiry found. One Kelston teacher, known as Mr 222 in the inquiry report, "physically assaulted and terrorised" children, including a boy who threatened to take his own life if he was sent back to the teacher. His parent complained to the Ministry of Education after remaining unhappy with the school's response. There was no evidence the ministry responded.
Two years later, in 1993, Kelston's then-principal Eileen Smith contacted police saying Mr 222 had struck a girl, and gave him a final written warning. She made a statement to police in 2000.
In 2008, a group of survivors met a police constable to discuss their complaints.
"To date there are at least 80 Deaf people wanting to make a complaint about [Mr 222] and this list is growing regularly," a NZ Police report from the time said, listing many instances of alleged physical abuse and several instances of inappropriate sexual behaviour.
It noted some principals and teachers had witnessed the alleged physical abuse, but nothing was ever done about removing the teacher. The report was to be forwarded to a detective for follow-up, but none occurred.
Two years later, the Confidential Listening and Assistance Service followed up with police on behalf of the group of survivors, but it was another two years until a detective was assigned.
"The evidence available to the Inquiry indicates that in 2012 the investigator did not seek to take a statement or conduct an evidential interview with any of the survivors, yet decided that the complaints did not meet the threshold to proceed to trial," the inquiry findings said.
"Commissioner [Andrew] Coster was asked for comment on why the complainants weren't spoken to and whether this was an adequate investigation."
He replied, "It doesn't reflect the kind of depth we would expect to see in an investigation of this kind, and which I believe we would see in an investigation of this kind today."
SM was involved in a group of seven former students who approached police about abuse at Kelston. "There was various support offered and we were asked to give the names of teachers. And I understand that the police interviewed the teacher and there were seven who were telling the truth, but the teacher just spoke lies against their word. And that teacher actually passed away last month," he said.
"In Australia, there were three teachers who were arrested for this kind of behaviour. But why is it in New Zealand, why are there no consequences for these teachers?"
RNZ asked police whether it would look again at the allegations, but they said they would not be speaking about individual people or their cases.
"Survivors can be assured we will treat each investigation confidentially and with the care and attention it deserves. Police will engage with any person who wants to report criminal offending; this includes any cases about Mr 222."
*Survivors' names have been changed
Where to get help
Victim Support 0800 842 846
Rape Crisis 0800 88 33 00
HELP Call 24/7 (Auckland): 09 623 1700, (Wellington): 04 801 6655 - push 0 at the menu
Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP) 022 344 0496
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