Teacher’s Pet: ‘I felt sick and ashamed’, says ex-pupil of predatory culture at Chris Dawson’s school

A former Cromer high school student says she jumped from a car to escape a teacher after a night at a pub.

Former Cromer High student Phil Webster. James Croucher

A former Cromer high school student says she jumped from a car to escape a teacher after a night at a pub, and that a distraught friend told her of being raped by a teacher.

Helen Prideaux is the latest to come forward about the widening scandal of teachers pursuing students for sex at high schools on Sydney’s northern beaches in the 1970s and 80s.

She says a night with school friends at the local Time and Tide Hotel — a common meeting place for students despite their being underage — turned sinister.

A teacher who offered her a lift stopped the car blocks from her home and groped at her. She felt “sick and ashamed” as she fled and hid in bushes.

Later, a school friend visited her with “tears rolling down her face … there was no lucky escape for her”.

Another former Cromer student, Phil Webster, says a sports teacher and coach told him of his obsession for young girls. The same coach said he would have sex with students during free periods at school. The teacher still works in the profession.

And former Cromer school vice-­captain Robyn Wheeler, the first to blow the whistle, says some teachers plied students with alcohol and drugs, grooming them for sex.

All three former students have written about their experiences for The Weekend Australian today.

Ms Wheeler is due to meet detectives next week as the abuse scandal grows, with new allegations emerging that a female teacher pursued teenage boys for sex.

Former students are planning to hold a support session at Collaroy this month to offer information to alumni about counselling and support.

About 20 teachers at three high schools — Cromer, Forest and Beacon Hill — have had allegations levelled against them since the start of The Weekend Australian ’s investigative podcast series T he Teacher’s Pet.

The podcast is examining the 1982 disappearance and suspected murder of Lyn Dawson by her husband Chris, then a Cromer High teacher and former Newtown Jets rugby league star.

At the time his wife went missing, Mr Dawson was in an affair with a teenager, Joanne Curtis, that started when she was 16 and one of his students at Cromer. Mr Dawson denies killing his wife.

The podcast has also exposed a culture of acceptance around teachers preying on students on the northern beaches and elsewhere.

The age of consent for girls in NSW was 16 but it was an offence for teachers to have sex with pupils under the age of 17, with a maximum penalty of 14 years’ imprisonment.

The NSW Department of Education, led by former ABC managing director Mark Scott, has been accused by former students of failing to follow up on the allegations.

In a letter obtained by The Weekend Australian, Jane Thorpe, executive director of Employee Performance and Conduct, said the department had jurisdiction to investigate allegations involving current employees.

“Many of the matters identified in the podcast and associated media do not provide sufficient information for detailed inquiries to be made,” Ms Thorpe wrote this week.

“However, where teachers have been named, inquiries have been made to determine whether they have been previously investigated and to determine whether they are still working for the ­department.

“To date none of the inquiries have resulted in existing employees being identified.”

Bravehearts founder Hetty Johnston said it was “morally an abrogation of their duty of care” for the department to wash its hands of offences without thoroughly investigating.

“They should be looking into their files for any evidence they can find to support their students,” she said.

NSW opposition education spokesman Jihad Dib said “more could be done” by the department.

At a minimum the department should be doing everything it could “to see if those people are still working”, he said.

“You’ve got to be a willing participant in the investigation.”