Former pupils from one of the country's two specialist deaf schools are suing the Government over alleged historic abuse they say was "condoned and covered up" by authorities.
The former students say the Kelston School for the Deaf in Auckland failed to stop violence being committed against them when they were children and have outlined assaults they say include beatings, broken arms and a girl being thrown into a pool.
The Ministry of Education has agreed to consider an out-of-court process to settle the claims, however at least one family wants to see the accused held accountable in court.
"It's criminal. My son still lives in fear," said the mother of one of the pupils involved in the case.
"These children were abused by someone who was supposed to look after them at a school for the vulnerable.
"They had no-one to turn to and no way of expressing it to their families."
Most of the allegations stem from the 1980s and centre on a teacher who is now retired.
Police investigated the teacher in 2011 but he was not charged because of the difficulty of prosecuting historic complaints.
Kelston would not discuss the former teacher, only saying it had been contacted by police about the matter and it went no further. Chief executive David Foster said health and safety was paramount and emphasised that while the claims were historic, they were being taken seriously.
The mother didn't believe that, saying the school and the ministry should have investigated the teacher when the claims arose. Better yet, the management at the time should have stepped up, she said.
"When my son came home and said he'd been punched in the ribcage by a teacher, I rang the school and talked to them about it but they just brushed it off," she said.
"I tried again when I went there at the weekend to see my son but got the same response."
She said she only realised that her son had been abused after working with deaf people in the South Island who all began to tell her similar stories of the violence at Kelston while they were there.
"It all made sense to me. Because, after my son began attending Kelston as a boarder, he used to come home and was really angry," she said.
"He would push things up against his door when he went to bed.
"I thought that was really strange but I didn't really know what was going on."
She wanted to see the teacher prosecuted by police and hoped that if the court action was made public more students might come forward to tell their stories.
Lawyers from Cooper Legal in Wellington, which is taking on the case, said the firm was approached by a group of former students in 2011 after the police prosecution did not go ahead.
Allegations of physical assaults have also been made against other teachers, while allegations of physical and sexual assaults had been made against other students. The firm said that at the time the alleged assaults by other students occurred, the school was informed, but it took no action to prevent these assaults from continuing.
Cooper Legal said while its client group was small - between five and 10 people - there were a large number of former students who suffered mistreatment at Kelston.
"It is our hope that when that community sees that some of their own have decided to speak out, more will find the courage to do so."
Secretary for Education Peter Hughes said the ministry took any allegation of abuse against young or vulnerable people extremely seriously.
"We will take every step to investigate these cases," Hughes said.
"This process could take a little while. But it is important for those concerned that we make sure we take the right time to fully explore all the relevant information so we can respond appropriately to their claims."
- Sunday Star Times
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