‘God-like’ coding educator accused of harassment

The chief executive of a high-profile coding program for high school and university students has resigned after several investigations substantiated allegations of harassment, including against students who were at high school at the time.

More than 200,000 students nationally went through Grok Academy’s coding classes last year, and thousands more have attended a 10-day in-person summer coding program, the National Computer Science School (NCSS), which ran concurrently at the University of Melbourne and the University of NSW. It was abruptly cancelled in July.

James Curran, Grok Academy boss and National Computer Science School director. Credit: Matt Davidson

This masthead can reveal Grok Academy’s boss and NCSS director, James Curran, resigned from his position after multiple allegations of harassment were substantiated by an independent investigator.

This masthead has spoken to nine women who allege Curran sent them inappropriate messages. Six of the women were high school students at Curran’s summer school coding program, and three allege harassment while employed at Grok Academy, the coding camp and at the University of Sydney respectively. The allegations span 10 years.

For each of the women, Curran represented a powerful, influential mentor figure who promised to help them with their careers, but who then abused their trust by making sexualised comments, and in some cases inappropriate touching during a game he called “jungle speed”.

Curran was an associate professor at the University of Sydney and also the academic director of its Australian Computing Academy until 2021. He helped write the national computing curriculum for primary and high school students. In 2013, he founded Grok Learning, a platform for teaching students computer programming skills that later became Grok Academy, which reached more than 200,000 students at 3400 schools last year.

This masthead can reveal Curran has been subject to three separate investigations into his conduct. Each investigation substantiated allegations of harassment.

Dr James Curran making a presentation in 2023.

An investigation in 2019 by Curran’s then-employer, the University of Sydney, fully substantiated 35 allegations of harassment against him, and partially substantiated eight allegations. He was issued a “first and final warning in the strongest possible terms”, according to paperwork seen by this masthead. He wrote a letter of apology to the complainant, but remained employed by the university.

The University of NSW, which jointly ran the National Computer Science School alongside the University of Melbourne, conducted its own investigation in early 2024 after a separate complaint by two students. It then referred the matter to NSW Police over concerns regarding his behaviour. The NSW Police concluded there was no criminal offence committed, for reasons including that the participants were over the age of 16 at the time of the alleged harassment.

A third investigation, instigated in May this year by Grok Academy’s board and run by an independent external investigator, WorkDynamic, substantiated two incidents of sexual harassment and six incidents of general harassment.

Grok Academy CEO James Curran resigned from his position after multiple allegations of harassment were substantiated by an independent investigator.

Grok Academy, which is a not-for-profit organisation, is now in turmoil. As many as 80 of its 100 permanent staff were made redundant earlier this year and half of its board, chaired by former University of Technology Sydney deputy vice-chancellor Shirley Alexander, has also resigned. Alexander did not respond to detailed questions from this masthead.

Screenshots seen by this masthead show a pattern of late-night Facebook messages between Curran and his students, in which he would commonly steer benign conversations about coding or class towards sexual topics.

One alleged victim, Amy*, said she was harassed by Curran when she was a high school student, after meeting him at the National Computer Science School, the 10-day summer school program that has since been shut down. Curran was the director of the school for more than 20 years, and each year more than 200 students went through the in-person program.

Amy said she met Curran at the age of 16, and received a Facebook friend request from him a year later when she had finished year 11 and had attended the camp for a second time.

She said Curran messaged almost every night for several months, sending thousands of messages in total, often for hours at a time and late into the night.

An investigation in 2019 by Curran’s then-employer, the University of Sydney, fully substantiated 35 allegations of harassment against him, and partially substantiated eight allegations.Credit: Wolter Peeters

Facebook messages seen by this masthead between Amy and Curran show him responding “that sounds kinky” to a message about a coding club, and references to ABBA song lyrics about a young girl who is pursuing an older man. Both of these were found to be instances of sexual harassment by Grok’s independent investigator.

“He messaged both myself and my best friend from high school, and it started off quite light and friendly, just asking how school is, and I said I was getting ready for HSC exams and things like that,” Amy said.

“It was all fine initially, and then he started talking about things that are less professional, if you can call it that. Lots of messages late at night, and things that you would probably only talk to a close friend about.”

Curran also requested Amy send photos of herself on her knees, begging.

“At the time, I felt almost like my career was going to be in jeopardy, because I don’t have family in the tech industry like a lot of my friends did. I didn’t have those kinds of connections,” she said.

“A lot of people told me it’s a very male-dominated industry, and told me to be careful, so when this happened, I was very cautious to tell anyone because I wanted to go on to study this and get a job. I didn’t know how important this man is in the industry.

“And it seems like at this point he’s largely getting away with everything.”

After Grok’s independent investigation, an apology to Amy from Curran was read out at a September 12 meeting.

“James has asked me to apologise deeply to you. He has spent 25 years building NCSS as an inclusive, supportive community for diverse learners around Australia. Anything that has caused people to feel unwelcome or uncomfortable goes against everything he set out to achieve.

“He said he did not realise that his conduct amounted to sexual harassment and he had no intention to act in that way. He saw it as banter with like-minded computer science aficionados. He is deeply sorry.”

A second woman, Sarah*, also said she received sexualised messages from Curran while she was a high school student at the summer coding program.

“I felt uncomfortable and confused, then ashamed that this had happened to me,” Sarah said. “I did not realise that what had happened to me had happened to other people too.

“At NCSS, he is basically god. All the students look up to him and he’s very well respected. I want other women to know that they are not alone in their experiences, and I want to make sure that this does not happen again in the future.”

Grok asked Amy and Sarah to sign non-disclosure agreements that would have effectively silenced them from speaking out, but they declined.

A third woman, Stephanie*, a former Grok employee, alleges instances of inappropriate touching and messages. Stephanie was a long-time volunteer at the National Computer Science School – the coding program attended by Amy and Sarah – and Curran conducted a “job interview” for Stephanie at the Ian Thorpe swimming pool.

Dr James Curran and 2012 National Computer Science School tutors and participants

According to Stephanie, over a period of months, Curran would frequently message late at night and ask questions about her sexual history and preferences, including references to masturbation.

“Are you spending the day in the bath to recover?” he wrote with a tongue poking out emoji after Stephanie finished a team athletic event.

“What if my fantasy is talking to a nekkid woman in the bath?” he wrote in another message.

On at least two occasions he said he was deleting the message chain and said Stephanie should too.

At summer camp, Curran would also initiate games of “jungle speed” with students and other tutors – a game involving cards and a totem – that Stephanie said would regularly devolve into inappropriate wrestling.

“People may say JS dojo is why I should never be in charge!,” Curran wrote in one message to Stephanie. “You’re also totally comfortable with JS dojo,” he wrote in another. “That suggests an underlying physical oppenness [sic]. Doesn’t make you a sex fiend automatically.”

Stephanie said: “James was like a mentor to me when I was having a hard time, but the conversations would devolve into asking me about my relationship, about sexual habits and things like that.

“He would try to make you feel special, talented, like the chosen one. He wanted you to feel like he ‘invested’ in you, so you were at his beck and call.

“When I saw he had a bad day I would try to support him, but somehow that ended up with him telling me about his most unfulfilled need in his life, ‘sex. It’s always sex’.

“James seems to exclusively mentor women. These do start out as mentoring relationships that over time take a turn, once he has built up your trust. I had a male colleague, he was at the same career stage as me and he had known James for many years. He requested mentoring from James multiple times, but he was always ignored.”

A fourth woman, Laura*, alleges Curran harassed her while she was studying at the University of Sydney. She showed this masthead screenshots from 2017 in which he sent sexualised messages, including “perhaps you would like to tie guys down then”. He also insisted Laura play jungle speed and she said he wrestled her and another student in his office.

Laura complained to the university, which, after an investigation, fully substantiated 35 allegations of harassment. Curran was not terminated and was instead given a warning.

“Since I was taking computer science classes I saw him around campus. He gave me personal tutoring and it felt like he was doing me a great favour helping me with my studies,” Laura said.

“I considered him a mentor. He was kind of a fatherly figure and I really trusted him.

“One night we had an online tutoring session. Each time I made a coding error, James awarded himself an IOU. At the end, he requested I send selfies of myself in my different pyjamas for each IOU. I really didn’t want to do it, but he made me feel that I owed him. He later told me he liked that I had to take my clothes off when changing outfits. I was horrified to think he had the power to manipulate me in my own home.”

Following the university’s investigation, Curran wrote a letter of apology to Laura, in which he said “please know that what has horrified me the most is hurting you. My goal has always been to help you, and every student, achieve their educational best. I have betrayed my life’s purpose in my dealings with you. I’m sorry.

“On a professional level, I was arrogant enough to think my tutoring mantra of ‘friendly, not friends’ did not apply in your case. I was wrong and I have been humbled by this. The rules are there for a reason and for everyone. You deserved better from me.”

A fifth person, Charlotte*, worked at the NCSS summer camp as a tutor at the University of Sydney in 2018, and at the University of Melbourne in 2020. Charlotte says Curran’s Facebook messages initially made her feel special, but that they quickly became sexualised.

“I definitely saw him as someone that could write me a letter of recommendation, say for an internship or for a job. It was very benign at first, but then he kept trying to turn mundane conversations into weird and sexual ones. And he was regularly trying to ask me for selfies. He would get handsy as well, during the games of jungle speed.”

Curran remained with Grok until as recently as last month, but the organisation confirmed his departure in a statement. Curran has deleted his LinkedIn profile and has been removed from the “governance” page of Grok Academy’s website.

“Grok Academy takes all complaints regarding its staff seriously,” a spokeswoman said.

“To address the recent allegations against Dr Curran, we engaged an external workplace investigator to conduct a thorough and comprehensive investigation. The investigation was kept open for over three months to enable maximum opportunity for participation. During that time, two complainants participated. Grok was informed by NSW Police that two complaints were reported to it regarding alleged historical conduct by Dr Curran. They found that no offences were detected and confirmed that no further police action would be taken.

“The investigation has now concluded, and we are confident that it was handled with care and respect for all parties involved. As per standard practice in any investigation, all participants were asked to sign investigation protocol documents, requiring confidentiality, in order to preserve the independence of each participant’s evidence. As the two complainants raised concerns about maintaining confidentiality, the investigator did not insist that they sign the investigation protocols documents in order to participate.

“The investigation did not involve any other staff members, past or present. Out of respect for the confidentiality of those involved, we will not disclose specific details of the investigation. Dr Curran has resigned as CEO and as a board member and is no longer employed by Grok Academy in any capacity.

“The Grok Academy digital learning platform continues to be freely available to all school students.”

Curran apologised in a statement sent in response to detailed questions.

“I have spent 25 years building NCSS as an inclusive, supportive community for diverse learners around Australia,” he said.

“Anything that has caused people to feel uncomfortable goes against everything I set out to achieve. I had no intention to act in any inappropriate way. I am deeply sorry.”

Before it was shut down, the NCSS had won sponsorship from technology companies including Atlassian, WiseTech Global, Google, Optiver and organisations including the Australian Signals Directorate, Commonwealth Bank, Westpac, NAB and Macquarie. This masthead is not suggesting any of these organisations were aware of Curran’s conduct.

Dr James Curran has been scrubbed from Grok Academy’s website.

WiseTech and Google said they withdrew funding for the school after being made aware of the investigations into Curran. Westpac and Macquarie indicated they were not told about any allegations.

“The NCSS summer school program is no longer running at the University of Melbourne,” a spokesman for the university said.

“The university was made aware of concerns raised by a member of the public regarding the NCSS summer school program earlier this year, and acted swiftly in response in line with established processes.”

A UNSW spokesman said “historical matters preceding our agreement with Grok Academy were brought to our attention. UNSW Sydney referred these matters to NSW Police. UNSW terminated its agreement and has no ongoing relationship with the Grok Academy.”

A University of Sydney spokeswoman said: “We are committed to creating a safe environment for our students and staff and our trauma-informed sexual misconduct complaints process is designed to protect the safety, wellbeing and privacy of all those involved.”

For Sarah and the other alleged victims, the process of finding each other and sharing their stories has been cathartic.

“I think the reason James has gotten away for so long is because of how ‘hush hush’ it has all been,” Sarah said.

“It is through sharing our stories that we can find each other, understand what has happened, and do something about it.

“I think it is a miracle that we found each other at all.”

*The names have been changed to protect identities.

With Ben Grubb

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