The boys who remember and the school that forgot

antrim | miscellaneous | opinion/analysis

Tuesday March 09, 2004 15:42

by Celeste

'The boys who remember and the School that forgot' a documentary shown last night, told the harrowing story of how the sexual abuse of young boys was brushed under the carpet by a Top ulster private establishment school Campbell College.

One father told how he has battled for years to bring the school to account for the legacy of emotional and physical scars his son suffered due to sexual abuse.

A once happy bright, confident 10 year old who entered Campbell college as a child boarder, was left a broken, suicidal and disturbed teenager, who attempted suicide and self harm on numerous occasions after suffering sexaul abuse whilst a 10 year old boarder. The father told how his son's behaviour changed after becoming a boarder at Campbell college, how he had to restrain his son from jumping out of a third storey window on return home from Campbell college.

Graham Nieto a former pupil at Campbell College told how he had witnessed a 13 year old prefect classmate sexually abuse 10 year old boarders in his care on numerous occasions, and had dragged the abuser to the headmasters office to inform the headmaster of what was going on.

And that all the school did was to remove the 13 yr old abuser who was the son of a soldier from his position of responsibility over the 10 year old boarders, after which there was no mention of the matter to pupils or parents. The abuser was not expelled from the school or referred to social services for treatment. The headmaster dismissed the sexual abuse, as teenage experimentation.

Those pupils who suffered sexual abuse at the hands of the 13yr old heard no more about the matter. Parents were not informed of what had happened. Social services were not informed of the serious sexual abuse, a teacher was not designated to investigate the matter and to ensure the welfare of the pupils, abused pupils were not referred to the social services. The abuser only recieved an adult caution from the police, which is inapropriate compared with recent case such as that of 13 year old sex abuser from Ballymena called Bateson who was recently given a custodial sentence for his years of sexual abuse of his younger neighbour.

The father of one of the abused boys wrote to all the members of Campbell college school governors to highlight his son's plight but not one of the Governors responded. The boys who were abused at Campbell college are campaigning to make the school accountable for its actions and transparent its dealings with pupils and parents in the aftermath of the sexual abuse at Campbell college.