Hutchins School admits more could have been done for victims of sexual abuse

ABC News
January 19, 2016

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-01-19/hutchins-admits-more-should-have-been-done-for-sex-abuse-victims/7098788

The school has pledged to do what it can to support former students who were sexually abused.

Prestigious Hobart boys school, The Hutchins School, has admitted that "more could have been done" to respond to concerns about the sexual abuse of students.

The school has formally responded to findings of abuse at the school, which were outlined in a report by the Royal Commission into Institutional Response to Child Sexual Abuse.

The commission investigated reports of abuse by former headmaster David Lawrence and teacher Lyndon Hickman in the 1960s and 1970s, as well as the Anglican Church's response.

It noted that given the number of students who had complained about sexual abuse and the number of teachers implicated, the nature of the school environment "clearly placed students at risk".

It said the board and the community should have been aware and previous boards had failed to come to a proper understanding of child sexual abuse.

In one case, the school's poor response had prolonged a student's trauma.

In a letter sent to the Hutchins community, board chairman Marcus Haward said the board accepted findings that "more could have been done by the school" in responding to concerns first raised in the 1990s.

Professor Haward added that the school would do what it could to support former students.

"The school cannot undo what happened in the past, nor ignore it now and in its future," he said.

"It will not do so."

The school issued an apology before the royal commission began its hearings and repeated it in the letter.

"I want to re-state, categorically, that the board apologises sincerely and wholeheartedly, to any and all Hutchins Old Boys who have been sexually abused," he said.

"The current board understands and accepts the findings that more could have been done in the school in responding to concerns first raised in the 1990s."