Sexual abuse survivor feels unable to move on as quest for compensation and apology stalls

Warning: This story is about sexual abuse

• Sexual abuse survivor forced to deal with school where it happened frustrated over lack of progress in compensation and apology bid
• Top human rights lawyers says her firm has to turn away people seeking redress from their old schools for abuse because of the volume of claims
• Officials are looking into gaps in redress system, including people abused at schools

A survivor of sexual abuse at a high school more than 50 years ago is feeling frustrated and unable to move on as his quest for compensation and a meaningful apology stalls.

The man is required to deal directly with the school where the abuse happened and says he's getting nowhere.

This is all part of a redress system that a top human rights lawyer said is full of holes, although officials said they're working on improvements for survivors, including those who suffered abuse in schools.

'Affected day to day'

The man, who RNZ is calling Simon, is now aged in his mid-60s, and has spent five decades dealing with what happened to him as young teen.

"I'd just turned 13 and in the first term of the first year at Tauranga Boys' College I was groomed by one of my teachers. That continued for some time. It's something I've had to live with," Simon said.

"I've felt that it's affected me both in relationships with people and also in my formative years in trying to be able to learn and get work. I found that I didn't do very well at school, and those sorts of issues have continued through my working life."

Simon said the police approached him about eight years ago about the teacher who abused him, and he was interviewed. The teacher was now out of the country and officers didn't know where he was.

"There were times in my life where it wasn't much of a problem at all. It kind of came up and I thought about it - probably in more recent times when I hear stories of other people's sexual abuse, particularly the stories of those from Dilworth.

"There's also dealing with post-traumatic stress. Those things affect me day to day - looking at photos or even just hearing or seeing the word 'Tauranga'."

Frustration mounts as years roll on

Four years ago Simon decided to seek compensation and an apology so, as is required for survivors of abuse at high school before 1989, when New Zealand's schooling system was restructured, he approached Tauranga Boys' College.

The man has made a sensitive claim with ACC and receives counselling. But he is unhappy there is no clear process for survivors in his situation, where dealing with different schools means there are inconsistencies in how matters are resolved.

If the abuse had happened at a state primary or specialist school before 1989, or a state school that was now closed, he could have sought redress though State Redress NZ, relating to the Ministry of Education.

An Ombudsman's ruling this year found the different experiences for claimants was unreasonable.

A spokesperson from the office of Erica Stanford, the minister in charge of the response to the Royal Commission of Inquiry into abuse in state and faith-based care, said that in January Cabinet "agreed to a phased approach on considering options for supporting survivors that are currently outside the scope of the state redress system".

"This includes survivors of abuse in care of non-government and faith-based organisations, and some school settings. Further advice is expected to be delivered in 2027.

"As part of this work, the Ministry of Education is leading the development of advice on possible options to support survivors of abuse in education settings who cannot currently access the Ministry of Education sensitive claims process."

The ministry confirmed: "This work includes consideration of claims that currently sit with school boards."

While that happens, however, Simon said he felt isolated in negotiating with his old school.

"I wrote to the school exactly four years ago to this month. They initially were not responsive or receptive to looking at any form of redress. We've gone through a process of them trying to verify all the facts, which I can understand.

"We have moved forward over those four years, but getting an apology and a way forward to redress has been a particularly hard thing to get."

Tauranga Boys' College principal Andrew Turner said it was in ongoing correspondence with Simon's lawyer, seeking a resolution.

"As this matter is highly sensitive and we are still working through a resolution, it is not appropriate for us to comment. The College is open and remains open to finding an appropriate resolution to [Simon's] claim."

It did not answer general questions about whether it had a process for redress claims, or if it was dealing with others.

Simon said the school offered had an apology, but he didn't think was adequate for reasons that included it being made in a letter discussing legal matters with his lawyer.

He said the school had also recently suggested that because the teacher was employed by the then-Department of Education Simon should lodge a claim with the ministry, taking him back to square one.

Law firm sees flood of survivors of abuse at schools seeking compensation

Top human rights lawyer Sonja Cooper said the education sector was a gaping hole in the redress system that people such as Simon could fall through.

"You might be lucky. You might have gone to a school that has an established redress process - it knows what it's doing and it knows how to help survivors through a process, and it has a process and it will pay redress.

"Most schools don't have any process. They're kind of shocked when these allegations come to them because, obviously, some of them can be very historical."

Her law firm, Cooper Legal, had even had to turn away people in similar situations to Simon because it couldn't deal with the volume of abuse claims, where survivors had to deal directly with schools.

"We've been flooded with Board of Trustee claims in the last year or so, and I think we've reached that point where we're saturated and we just can't deal with them all. We know there is a large cohort of survivors out there who suffered abuse in schools who want to have their claims dealt with."

Cooper said change was needed, but she wouldn't advocate that all survivors of abuse in education having to go through the ministry process because it demanded a high standard of proof and moved at a "glacial" speed.

"We are getting offers now for clients who came to us at least 10 years ago, and their claims have been sitting with the Ministry of Education for eight or nine years."

She said people getting nowhere when dealing directly with their old schools could consider complaining to the Human Rights Commission, depending on when the abuse happened, or the Teaching Council.

The ministry said it had 770 claims for redress being assessed through its process. It had settled 255 since 2010.

While he waited for an outcome for his claim, Simon said he felt like he was trapped between two locked doors, without keys to get through and move on.

"It wears me down. I've had to engage a lawyer to be able to fight the battle as well. It doesn't do my mental health any good trying to deal with a [school] board who have been resistant all the way along."

Where to get help for sexual violence: