Eight-year-old boy allegedly sexually assaulted by another child in toilets at Gold Coast school
An eight-year-old boy was sexually assaulted by another child in the toilets of a Gold Coast primary school, it is alleged.
Gold Coast
Don't miss out on the headlines from Gold Coast. Followed categories will be added to My News.
AN eight-year-old boy was sexually assaulted by another child in the toilets of a primary school on the northern end of the Gold Coast, it is alleged.
The Department of Child Safety and the Department of Education are investigating.
The Bulletin cannot legally identify the school, as it may identify the children.
Police were notified of the alleged incident, but are not involved due to the legal age of culpability.
“The Gold Coast Child Protection Investigation Unit (CPIU) were notified of an incident by the school,” the police spokeswoman said.
“In Queensland the legal age of culpability is 10 years and over. As the matter involves juveniles it is inappropriate to provide details of the incident.”
An Estimates Hearing was thrown into turmoil this morning when LNP MP Jarrod Bleijie raised the case.
The MP asked a number of questions and attempted to table the mother’s emails to the Premier.
The Director General acknowledged the Government was aware of the incident and said that the child accused of the incident had been suspended in the past 24 hours.
The mother of the alleged victim took to Facebook in the days after the alleged June 21 incident. She wrote:
“On Friday the 21st of June I had received a phone call from the acting principal of our son’s school … to say that my 8 year old son had been RAPED in the toilets, on school grounds,” the post read.
“As soon as I heard the word RAPE, I became speechless. I didn’t know how to feel, I didn’t know how to react, I didn’t even know how to process what I had just been told.
“The thoughts that were going through my head was that I’m a failure as a mother. I let him down by not protecting him. I was angry that it even happened to him in the first place. I was sad that at the tender age of 8, he was exposed to what I find as a mother, to be truly horrific.”
SUBSCRIBE TO THE BULLETIN FOR $1 A WEEK FOR THE FIRST 12 WEEKS
The post goes on to say her son had told her the alleged offending had been going on for two months.
“We needed to hear it from him what had happened. Turns out this had been going on for 2 months. Let’s think about this for a moment, my son had been subjected to rape for TWO MONTHS, on the school grounds.
“My heart broke all over again. He had been violated, for 2 months and I didn’t know. It wasn’t until my son had finally had enough of it all, that he yelled at the kid to stop and leave him alone.
“A passing teacher asked why it was that he was upset and after some time, he told them what he had gone through and that’s when they called and told me about it.
“Turns out that the ones that did this to my son are only 8 years old themselves. One of them is the main offender between the two, as the other one usually guards the door and according to our son, has only joined in a couple of times.”
The mother goes on to say when she questioned the school about it, she was told they were young.
“All these things went through my head of, ‘how can a child so young think of these things?’ To — ‘is this kid a victim himself? If so his family needs to be investigated and that kid protected from whomever is doing this to them.’
“The school’s response to these questions was ‘oh he’s young, he probably doesn’t know what he’s doing and that his mother claimed that according to the search history on the homes IPad, he learnt it from there.
“I’m sorry, first off why are you not monitoring your damn child, and secondly, how the hell is a kid going to learn that he needs to wait until EVERYONE IS GONE and to have someone be a LOOKOUT in case anybody comes by so he can perform Oral sex and threaten to do Anal from a dam youtube video, I know that website can be sketchy, but to have videos to that extent?
“And for the school to turn around and defend this kids actions by saying ‘he’s 8, he quite possibly doesn’t know what it is that he’s doing and is just curious.’
“Like hell he doesn't’t know what he’s doing. He knows for a dam fact that if anyone caught him doing what he’s doing, he’s going to get in trouble, hence the “lookout.”
“The fact that he had to threaten his victims to not say anything, sure as hell seems as if he knows what he’s doing, and isn’t something that’s being done ‘just out of curiosity’.”
She said she is worried for her son, after the school did not remove the alleged offender.
“The school also failed to remove the kid from the school, or even from being around our son, even though they gave us every assurance that they would keep him safe and keep that kid away from our son.
“They called me yesterday saying that their had been “INCIDENT” at school where the child was in close vicinity to our son, talking to him and wanting to play with him, but our son told him to get away from him and told him he didn’t want to play with a rapist.
“According to the school, our son calling his rapist a rapist is inappropriate and a punishable offence, yet my son being raped and being FORCED TO SEE HIS RAPIST DAILY isn’t a punishable offence.
“What in the hell kind of world do we live in, that a perpetrator is getting more protection than a rape victim? And as his parents, should “GET OVER IT” and “MOVE ON.”
“No I will not move on from the fact that my son got raped on school grounds, No, I will not censor him from calling that kid a rapist when you refuse to protect my son and force him to stick up and protect himself at school.
“No this will not go away as much as you want it to because you want “peace and harmony.” You’re obviously so clearly mistaken in thinking that I’m gonna just sit idly by and do all that I can to protect my son.”
The mother claims that police and the Department of Child Safety won’t do anything.
“And just an FYI, we have reported this to the police and to Child Safety and neither of them will do anything as the kid is only 8 years old. So we’re getting failure left right and bloody centre.
“And for those that say ‘just send your kid to another school, problem solved’. No the problem is not solved, that’s telling my kid, that the bad/naughty kids can get away with their crap and you have to leave YOUR friends behind even though you did nothing wrong.
“Why should I have to fork out for new books and new uniforms? And how is my son going to another school gonna stop there from being any other victims, as when this happened to him, there were other victims. Who knows if there are any others who are too scared to speak up.”
A spokesman for the Department of Education said the matter was being treating extremely seriously.
“There is no higher priority for the Department of Education than the safety and wellbeing of
students attending Queensland state schools,” the spokesman said.
“The department is aware of an alleged incident involving students … and is treating the matter extremely seriously.
“Staff from the regional office are working closely with the school. Supporting the wellbeing of the children involved is of paramount importance.”
The spokesman also said that staff are required to report instances of harm to authorities.
“School staff are required to report instances of harm or suspected harm to relevant authorities as a matter of urgency.
“The school met this requirement.
“Students and families have been offered guidance counselling and ongoing support.
“The Department is very careful to protect the identity of children in its care and cannot
provide any further details.”