Three years ago I wrote about the appalling abuse that went
on at my school. Since writing, there have been several successful prosecutions
of teachers who sexually abused children or who downloaded child porn –
including sick torture porn. And several unsuccessful prosecutions, including
one slippery character who seems to avoid jail every time he is taken to court.
I think witnesses feel too intimidated to give evidence.
My previous blog post is here: http://suerichmond.blogspot.co.uk/2014/10/historic-child-abuse-new-hope.html
This post is not going to be any easier.
The local education authority has written to ask for help with
their enquiry to prevent such problems arising in future. But in my view not
only will this do nothing to cure the problem (which has been going on for over
50 years at that place) but it’s just another way of the authorities saying
something has been done when, in fact, nothing substantial will have been done
at all. Lone wolves will still be predators and, when caught, the school
authorities will close ranks and cover their behaviour up again, probably more
so as they can’t afford a second scandal.
In parallel, the national investigation into historic abuse
by senior figures, especially politicians, is constantly experiencing delays
and difficulties and has run through no end of chairmen without getting very
far. I suspect the powers that be will kill it off eventually. The Prime Minister is
being accused in some sections of the press of orchestrating a cover-up. There
is never anything really resembling justice in any of this. Most of the perps
are dead for a start.
As ever, the emphasis in all this is on sex, but sexual
abuse is actually one manifestation of the abuse of power and not directly about
sex. Puritan sexual mores are still a
British obsession. My complaint – and that of many of my peers – is about the
violence and abuse we were subjected to, of which inappropriate sexual
behaviour was a part (though undeniably the worst part). Children as young as 9
kicked and punched and slapped, heads banged on walls and against each other, their
clothes ripped by teachers. The evidence given in court regarding boys being
subject to oral sex and sexual spanking rituals made me feel ill and angry.
Obviously, being transgender at a school for boys was
especially hard, and I can think of a couple of other pupils in my time who might
have been trans, too. In many ways it served to put me right off macho culture
and when I went into higher education and there were girls there I felt a whole
lot happier and more relaxed, although the absence of violence and abuse was
the best thing.
Here are just three images from my time at school that are
burnt in my mind and sum it up:-
- Aged 10, a teacher gets irritated with a boy and he is
asked to stay behind after class while the rest of us go for the afternoon
break. Ten minutes later the boy emerges, face twisted in agony, barely able to
walk. He has been kicked in the shins so many times that he hobbles for days
and has livid bruises for even longer.
- Aged 11, a teacher gets irritated with the boy next to me
and slaps his face repeatedly and with such force that his nose bursts. I can
still hear that loud crack of meaty adult fist on child flesh. This boy,
incidentally, is the class bully, but I feel sorry for him. His father, also a
teacher at the school, is the most evil man I have ever met; even after all
these years, nobody has ever beaten him for malice, and I’ve met some nasty characters in my years. The dad did nothing but beat this boy at home with his belt. It seems
that the boy had little to look forward to in life but brutality at home and
brutality at school. No wonder he was a bully. I guess he reckoned that’s how
you get on in life. But we all knew of his horrible existence and didn’t therefore
hold his nastiness that much against him. It was as well to be able to fight,
though, and once when he attacked me I replied with a left hook that knocked
him down and became legendary. He certainly respected me after that. We had an
uneasy friendship and, like I say, I felt very sad for him. I don’t know
whether he has made good in life or has gone to the wall. Maybe it’s best not
to enquire.
- Aged 13, a teacher gets his amusement each lesson by selecting a
pupil to answer a question and then slaps that pupil's cheeks in turn until he gives the right answer. It hurt all right.
And on and on and on and on, not to mention the sarcasm and
verbal abuse as well, the constant, never-ending threats and random
punishments. At least you could go home in the evenings. Well, all apart from
those pupils who somehow are cajoled into teachers’ homes and rooms to be
sexually assaulted. A longer description of this place is given in my earlier post.
One of the reasons I haven’t had kids myself is that I
wouldn’t want someone, especially my own child, to go through that. The friends
I’ve asked about their schools didn’t experience anything like this, though.
That makes me doubly angry.
I doubt I will waste any more time talking to the
authorities about this. It’s authority that is the problem in the first place,
and with a current political situation here as deranged as it is I know that
kids of the future are going to be brutalised as well. I am beginning to feel
that conquering evil is impossible.
Sue x
