Joel Deane Profile picture
Oct 22, 2019 7 tweets 2 min read Read on X
A few more things about #StKevins. In 2015, the school responded to the Royal Commission by putting out a statement that effectively washed its hands of sex abuse against old boys prior to 2008, directing victims to the Christian Brothers for "support, care & advice".
That statement was outrageous. Those old boys were sexually abused by Christian Brothers, but those Brothers were employed by St Kevin's. It made me wonder whether this was partly an attempt to sandbag the school against legal action.
By 2017, the school belatedly attempted to address historic sex abuse. An event was held at the school, the teachers and board members, two Year 12s attended, and an apology was read out. I'm not questioning whether the apology was sincere.
What I did wonder about, again, was the thinking behind the apology. For instance, only two old boys who were abused turned up. Why not more? And one of those former students was abused in the sports pavilion. So, where was the apology staged? In the sports pavilion. Seriously.
No wonder that old boy looked like he was standing on a frying pan. Also, why hold the event in the building that's at the bottom of the hill and more than 100 metres away from the main campus? It felt like a quarantine station.
Given only two old boys turned up, a cup of tea in the headmasters office would have been more appropriate -- and more meaningful. To be clear, I'm not blaming the current generation of school leaders for the sins of the past.
But St Kevin's, as an institution, has failed to come to terms with every aspect of its history -- and that's a reflection on the school's corporate culture.

• • •

Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to force a refresh
 

Keep Current with Joel Deane

Joel Deane Profile picture

Stay in touch and get notified when new unrolls are available from this author!

Read all threads

This Thread may be Removed Anytime!

PDF

Twitter may remove this content at anytime! Save it as PDF for later use!

Try unrolling a thread yourself!

how to unroll video
  1. Follow @ThreadReaderApp to mention us!

  2. From a Twitter thread mention us with a keyword "unroll"
@threadreaderapp unroll

Practice here first or read more on our help page!

More from @joeldeane

Jan 4
I’m a poet. I’m also a former newspaper journalist. I just read the News Corp piece claiming that a poem by @omarsakrpoet accuses Bluey of genocide. I then read the poem.

Let me list 10 problems with this beat up.
1. It places genocide in quotation marks (“genocide”) which usually means that Sakr uses that word. He doesn’t.
2. Therefore the article is based on a fabrication.
3. The journalist did not contact Sakr or his publisher to ask about the intent of the poem. This is a basic requirement in fair reporting.
4. Therefore the article is based on a fabrication and non-reporting.
Read 8 tweets
Sep 23, 2020
I grew up in a newsroom. I believe you can’t have a healthy democracy without a strong, independent media. I know how hard it is to be a good reporter. I know there are plenty of good journos. So why do I feel betrayed by the profession I love?
1. For 25 years it’s failed to come to terms with the threat of the internet.
2. It’s allowed bean counters to run the industry, leading to clickbait churnalism and the clearing out of newsrooms.
3. It’s given too much power to too few publishers and broadcasters.
4. It’s tried to turn news into entertainment.
5. It’s aided and abetted the rise of Pauline Hanson.
6. It’s allowed the political class in Canberra to obsess over tactics for 20 years instead of holding them to account for not value-adding to the nation.
Read 6 tweets
Aug 19, 2020
Bolt is peddling BS. Read Blainey and Pascoe. Both detail the ingenuity of Aboriginal Australians.

Blainey in 'A History of Victoria': 'The way of life varied ... depending on the terrain, the climate, the foods available, the traditions ... and their own ingenuity.'
Blainey: 'The northern plains possessed no suitable stone from which axes or spearpoints could be made, and so the stone arrived as part of a long chain of barter. The finest quarry of such stone in Victoria in the past 5000 years was Mount William.'
Blainey: '[At Mt William] a hard, dense hornfels or greenstone was quarried by Aboriginal people from about 250 circular or oval holes, and the discards from the quarrying now cover an area the size of a small racecourse.'
Read 7 tweets
Jul 23, 2020
I see Ita Buttrose has sparked another intergenerational shit fight where the old farts annoyed everyone, the young farts blamed everyone and the middle-aged farts bleated that they've been forgotten by everyone.

But the Boomer v Millennial v Gen X blather misses the point.
The real issue is economic.

There is a large and growing underclass of working (and increasingly not-working) poor in Australia who largely missed out on the boom times.
And they're old and young.

And they're male and female.

And they're the ones who will be done over if the Federal Government uses the COVID Recession as political cover to make our already too-insecure workforce even more insecure under the guise of 'flexibility'.
Read 6 tweets
Jul 20, 2020
I interviewed Sue Salthouse on March 30, 2020. It was a wide-ranging conversation about the past, present and future of the disability rights movement in Australia. Sue was an insightful, generous, deeply impressive person. We've lost a giant. Vale. #disability Image
Sue Salthouse: 'People gravitate to the people who are most like them and unfortunately people who look different, sound different, act different doesn't fit into that spectrum, so, that there is inherent discrimination around us for people with disabilities.'
Sue Salthouse: 'Unless we've got a secure income and a roof over our heads we can't address the other things, because a woman particularly doesn't have autonomy if she has to stay in that house because she hasn't got economic security so she can be abused and she can't leave.'
Read 10 tweets
Jul 6, 2020
Regarding the @VerityLa blow up over Stuart Cooke’s ‘About Lin’: I’m a poet. I’ve also worked in politics as a press secretary. That’s the communications equivalent of crisis response. With that in mind I have some advice for the editors and author.
First of all: it’s not about you. It never is. You have to listen to and try to understand why people are upset. That should be pretty easy in this case.
Second: be honest. Spin never works, especially when there are two parties involved, because there’s always a gap between your story and the truth. And that gap kills you.
Read 7 tweets

Did Thread Reader help you today?

Support us! We are indie developers!


This site is made by just two indie developers on a laptop doing marketing, support and development! Read more about the story.

Become a Premium Member ($3/month or $30/year) and get exclusive features!

Become Premium

Don't want to be a Premium member but still want to support us?

Make a small donation by buying us coffee ($5) or help with server cost ($10)

Donate via Paypal

Or Donate anonymously using crypto!

Ethereum

0xfe58350B80634f60Fa6Dc149a72b4DFbc17D341E copy

Bitcoin

3ATGMxNzCUFzxpMCHL5sWSt4DVtS8UqXpi copy

Thank you for your support!

Follow Us!

:(