A BRISBANE Catholic boys school has shown a strong commitment to safeguarding by inviting Australian of the Year Grace Tame as a guest speaker.
Iona College will host Ms Tame, 26, an advocate for survivors of sexual assault at a free community event, on August 5.
As a Year 10 student attending an exclusive all-girls school in Tasmania, she was repeatedly raped by her 58-year-old Maths teacher.
A decade later, after overcoming many personal and legal hurdles, Ms Tame now sees her work normalising conversations around sexual assault.
Iona College Rector, Oblate Fr Michael Twigg said he believed it would be the first time Ms Tame had spoken at a school in her role as Australian of the Year.
He said it was significant she had accepted Iona’s invitation for a talk for families of students and the wider community.
“Grace’s message is about not being silent any more, about the trauma and shame that might have previously been inflicted on people,” Fr Twigg said.
“As a Catholic Church I believe we have a long way to go, in little steps, and we hope this is one of those little steps in being able to regain trust.”
Sadly, Fr Twigg said it took abuse survivors too long – about two decades – to report abuse.
College principal, Trevor Goodwin said, “We thought by helping to bring Grace’s message to our part of Australia – if that even helped one person move closer to the care and support needed then that is worth all of the effort.”
Ms Tame’s talk will be the first event held in Iona College’s new 2500-seat Provence Centre, specifically designed for community gatherings.
More than 10 agencies that offer child protection support services, including Centacare and Bravehearts are co-sponsoring the event and will be on hand to provide assistance if needed.
Ms Tame will also speak with Year 10, 11, and 12 students during an afternoon forum that will include a question and answer session on matters of safeguarding and consent. Other schools have been invited.
“My hope is the afternoon forum will be another of the voices that helps the boys recognise why care, respect, empathy and dignity of the other, all matter,” Fr Twigg said.
The Iona rector said Ms Tame’s message of normalising conversations around sexual assault was consistent with the school’s latest strategic plan to take on board the 2017 recommendations of the royal commission into child sexual abuse.
“As the only school to have a priest as rector (or) principal at that time we felt more of an obligation than legislation required to be a place that people could trust with the care of young people,” Fr Twigg said.
In 2019 the Oblates of Mary Immaculate took a significant step towards committing to the highest levels of safeguarding, by appointing a Safeguarding officer, Megan Vardanega, to oversee safeguarding in all of their ministries in Australia , including Iona College.
Ms Vardanega works closely with students from Year 5 to 12 around feeling safe and being safe in their relationships at school, home and in their lives outside of these. This includes age-appropriate information and conversations around personal boundaries, consent and respectful relationships.
“We don’t shy away from these difficult conversations of with our boys at the school,” Ms Vardanega said.
“We’ve developed a lot of safeguarding resources.
“I would say most of the boys at the school would know what safeguarding is and who to come to if they ever felt unsafe in any of their relationships. And that’s because we regularly talk about it.”
Ms Tame’s visit to Iona College has been fully supported by the Iona College Old Boys Association and the wider Iona community, led by Principal Trevor Goodwin.
To secure a free ticket, and register for the event click here. trybooking.com/BQMFT
