In this week’s top story, a student was arrested by police following parental complaints of a ‘sophisticated drug syndicate’ at his school. The 16-year-old Girton Grammar student was arrested by police on Friday for a number of drug offences. A spokeswoman for the Victorian Police told The Educator that the student has since been released pending further enquiries. “As part of an on-going investigation Bendigo police arrested a 16-year-old boy on Friday 9 September,” the spokeswoman said.
In other news, the Royal Commission into last year’s hearings of institutional responses to child sexual abuse at Sydney’s elite Knox Grammar school was released. The Commission heard evidence from 12 former students of the school who detailed the sexual abuse that they suffered while at the school, as well as the devastating effect it had on them. The enquiry heard that the school’s former principal, Dr Ian Paterson, fostered a culture that was “dismissive of allegations of child sexual abuse” and deliberately withheld information from the Knox Council, the body responsible for the management of the school.
Finally, a long-awaited cash-injection will see preschool fees fall by nearly 30%. The NSW Government announced the plans on Wednesday following a review by the Auditor-General which found that while the state’s preschools were the least attended they were also the most expensive. The funding boost will see $115m allocated to preschools over 18 months, giving the parents of preschool students a financial reprieve that experts had warned was long overdue.