A shocking case has come to light where a 7-year-old school student in Victoria allegedly sexually abused his four younger classmates in the school premises.
The story as reported by Fairfax Media states that parents of school students were left in the dark about this incident where the Grade 1 student dragged his female classmates into the toilets, forcibly undressed them, made them perform oral sex and kissed their genitals.
Parents are shocked and angry that this information was kept away from them.
A mother, who spoke to ABC Radio about this on Thursday morning said, “My boys were distressed to see these things. The community hadn't been told. I don't think we needed to be told all the gory details but I think we needed to be told that there had been sexualised behaviours in the school yard. We needed to talk to our children."
This mother called the police after she came to know of this but was told that the police could not be involved because the child was under 10. She later got in touch the Department of Human Services who asked her to phone Education Department.
This case has brought to fore the fact how schools are faced with problematic sexualised behaviour among young children, who are too young to be charged by police.
Education Minister James Merlino told ABC that such child perpetrators were always supervised by adults and they also had access to psychologists and specialist counsellors. Speaking to ABC radio, he said, "Some child perpetrators were victims of abuse.”
