Knox parents place purple ribbons on school gate amid Royal Commission into sex abuse

By Michaela Whitbourn
Sydney Morning Herald
March 02, 2015

http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/knox-parents-place-purple-ribbons-on-school-gate-amid-royal-commission-into-sex-abuse-20150302-13shgd.html

Parents at  private boys school Knox Grammar have tied purple ribbons to its gate in honour of the victims who came forward to report sexual abuse at the school over more than 30 years.

A Twitter account set up overnight, @concernedknox, posted photos of the wrought-iron gate on the Pacific Highway covered in ribbons of various hues of purple on Monday.

"In honour of the victims of Knox paedophiles," a series of tweets posted on Monday morning said.

"All it takes for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing."

The profile of the Twitter page says parents have been appalled by the "lack of accountability ...  at Knox who allowed known sex offenders to remain on staff and put our children at risk".

One of the parents behind the account said: "What's important is that those survivors know that we think that they're incredibly brave. We are in awe of their bravery.

"It's saving all of our children, them coming forward. We support them, and we thank them."

The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse has heard the Uniting Church school was advised to destroy documents relating to child sexual abuse while at the same time preparing an apology to victims.

The legal advice was given in 2009, following the arrests of five teachers who abused children at the school in Wahroonga.

The royal commission is examining how Knox responded to sex abuse claims between 1970 and 2012. 

In his opening address, counsel assisting the commission, David Lloyd, said the school did not report allegations to the police for decades.

"In 2009, a number of former students of Knox came forward to the NSW Police to report allegations of sexual abuse by several different teachers employed by Knox between 1970 and 2009," Mr Lloyd said.

"One of the teachers the subject of the allegations was still employed by Knox in 2009 and had been employed since 1982."

On the first day of the public hearing, the school issued an apology for its failings in a statement read by its lawyer, Geoffrey Watson, SC.

"The school owed a primary responsibility to those students and those parents to keep them safe from this sort of thing and the school failed to discharge that responsibility," he said.

The hearing before Justice Jennifer Coate continues.