Trisha Reimers
Concern is mounting over changes to state education legislation that have been labeled "unfair and unworkable", and teachers at one high school in Victoria have vowed to strike over the forced resignation of a colleague.
The legislation is a response to concern about the threat of pedophiles working in schools. It specifies that anyone found to have committed sexual offenses related to minors is automatically barred from working with children or young adults.
Problems with the legislation have been highlighted through the case of 33-year-old former teacher Andrew Phillips. He was forced to resign his teaching position at Orbost Secondary College after police checks revealed he had pleaded guilty 12 years earlier, when he was 20, to sexually assaulting a young woman who was two months short of her 16th birthday. At the time, in 1992, Phillips was not a teacher. He was charged on the basis of a complaint made, not by the girl or her parents, but by a "third party".
Following questioning by police in 1992, Phillips admitted to the incident after receiving advice that pleading guilty would not affect his future job prospects and that no conviction would be recorded against him. He received a good behaviour bond.
Until last year, the law allowed the secretary of the education department some flexibility in deciding whether or not an individual in a teaching position posed a threat to students' welfare. Late in 2004, the Victorian Labor government changed the law under intense pressure from sections of the media and the state Coalition parties which accused the government of "hiding pedophiles" within the teaching profession.
When the legislation was changed, and all teachers underwent another police check, Phillips was informed that his record was now unacceptable and that he would be sacked unless he resigned. People dismissed from the education department cannot be employed in any government department again.
As a result, Phillips made the decision to resign. The new laws allow no room for an appeal.
State education minister Lynne Kosky is currently refusing to change her position on the laws and has reportedly stated that even if the laws were amended, discretion would not be applied in this case.
Kosky's intransigence has extended to refusing to meet with Orbost SC staff, parents and community members — a refusal AEU Victorian branch president Mary Bluett has called "insulting".
Support for changing the laws has grown significantly. The AEU and the Victorian Independent Education Union have thrown their support behind the campaign to change the laws and allow Phillips to be reinstated. Local politicians have joined the call, as has Police Commissioner Christine Nixon and federal education minister Brendan Nelson.
Andrew Blair, head of the Principals Association, has changed his position after researching the case. He now supports amending the legislation.
Teachers at Orbost SC have threatened to take strike action unless Kosky responds to their calls for the law to be amended by May 6 and to meet with a delegation from their school. They will travel to Melbourne to again demand a meeting with Kosky.
School principal John Brazier has expressed his support for Phillips and for strike action by the school's teachers. Brazier says he supports the intentions of the legislation but that it must be amended to allow some discretion in individual, unusual situations.
Jerry Williams, AEU sub-branch representative at Orbost SC, said the AEU regarded the legislation as "unjust and unfair". While supportive of legislative and other methods of ensuring that students are safe from sexual abuse, he said legislation that has no flexibility or room for discretion will not in practice achieve that outcomes. "It's like using a sledgehammer to open a peanut", he told Green Left Weekly.
[Trisha Reimers is an AEU member in Geelong and a member of the Socialist Alliance.]
From Green Left Weekly, May 4, 2005.
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