Horrific

The Waikato Times reports:

A 5-year-old boy was cornered in the toilets of his Waikato school by two older pupils who allegedly pinned him down, beat him and sexually assaulted him.

The shocked parents of the young victim have now pulled him out of the school because – to their further astonishment – the two alleged perpetrators of the abuse have not been expelled or even suspended.

The couple say they believe the school’s principal is not taking their son’s situation seriously because the parents of the alleged abusers are involved in the school community.

The poor poor kid. And here is what the school has done:

• “working through a sensitive matter involving young children”.
• met with ministry staff to develop a safety plan for their son and other pupils attending the school
• planned “to make some significant changes to the way we manage the way our toilets are used.
• “We are confident that our school is a safe space for all students,”
• We have also liaised with the families
• “We requested and received additional funding for this from the Ministry of Education.”
• The school’s staff and board had booked a workshop with Child Matters “to further review our child protection policy to ensure it is as strong as possible” and had brought forward a “Keeping Ourselves Safe” child abuse prevention programme initially scheduled for later in the year.

So they have had lots of meetings, have reviewed policies, have gained more money from the Ministry etc etc etc. But what they haven’t done is take any actual action in terms of consequences for those who allegedly sexually assaulted a five year old.