Risk of False Sex Abuse Claims Turning Young Men off Teaching Careers, Union Fears

By Caroline Winter
ABC News
May 13, 2014

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-05-13/teachers-union-worried-young-men-fear-career-in-schools-sex-abu/5449396

The Australian Education Union (AEU) is worried young men are turning away from teaching as a career option for fear of being falsely accused of child-sex offences.

It thinks issues such as the highly publicised Debelle royal commission in South Australia into handling of school sex abuse cases have not helped.

There has been a decline in male teachers in schools for some years and president of the AEU David Smith says it is understandable why this has happened.

"A number of young men ... or men of any age for that matter have been put off, they've told us, by the potential litigation that there might be should there be some sort of vexatious, unfounded accusation against them," he said.

Education Department figures show 56 South Australian schools had no male teachers last June, many of them primary schools and in country areas.

The Bureau of Statistics says men were 35 per cent of teachers in government schools in 1999 and that had fallen to 29 per cent by 2013.

The president of the Primary Principals Association of South Australia, Pam Kent, she says teachers did not feel at risk 20-30 years ago of being accused of inappropriate behaviour, but that has changed.

"I think the main reason would be the fact that men may feel vulnerable as teachers of young children, given the attention and focus on child protection and child abuse cases and reporting of incidents and even false accusations in some cases as well," she said.

"The school environment should really provide a true reflection of society and our society has men and women in it.

"We have quite a lot of families (students) who come from single-parent backgrounds and most of them are female [parents], so to have a positive male role model in their lives when they may not have one readily elsewhere is critically important."

Teachers need a safe workplace

Ms Kent and Mr Smith both agree child protection is paramount, but worry the rates of male teachers entering the profession will keep falling.

"We've done studies and seen studies that ... in other jurisdictions over 50 per cent of the accusations concerning sex abuse against teachers are proved to be without foundation, and that was reported, in fact, in the Debelle inquiry itself," Mr Smith said.

He says teachers need a safe workplace with a reduced potential for false accusations to be made.

My message to young people thinking about teaching is that this is a tiny number of people who have undertaken these dreadful acts.

Jennifer Rankine, on school sex abuse cases

South Australian Education Minister Jennifer Rankine says the Debelle royal commission drew up a response to sex abuse claims but also looked at ways to tighten the reporting system.

"The second tranche of that is me putting in place some of the most stringent checks and balances that you can have in place to ensure that only the right people get into our education system," she said.

"But there will always be unscrupulous people out there that try and weave their way through the system."

Ms Rankine says she wants to reassure young men that teaching remains a good career choice for them.

"I'm sure that there are many, many people in our system who have been really hurt and demoralised by people in the system that have misused the trust in them, but my message to them, my message to young people thinking about teaching is that this is a tiny number of people who have undertaken these dreadful acts," she said.

The SA Education Department says between 2008 and 2012 there was a 25 per cent rise in the number of young men under 25 enrolling in teaching courses in South Australia, providing hope for the future.