One Launceston school has seen seven child sex offenders identified in the media since 2005. Is this too many, or is it to be considered acceptable given the size of the College?

This question speaks to our cultural attitudes about child sexual abuse that views it is an inevitable in much the same way that we tolerate the annual ‘road toll’.  The attitudes I have found confronting when advocating for CSA prevention include:

• Child sexual abuse is just a natural hazard of growing-up in Tasmania. It is a right of passage that serves to toughen us up for the real world.
• The harms of child sexual abuse are overblown
• Child sexual abuse doesn’t happen in our respectable conservative city

Federal, state and non-government regulators have concluded that there “are currently no identified areas of non-compliance at (this College) in regard to student welfare”

With this response we now have our answer – as long as a school experiences less than one paedophile every three years on average then educational regulators do not detect systemic issues.

 Conversation starters?“

1. Do you think that child sexual abuse can be prevented?
2. How many paedophiles would you tolerate at your child’s school?
3. Are there links between our tolerance of child abuse and our convict past?