Markets 
Survivors of Redeemer Baptist School have told a NSW parliamentary inquiry they were sexually, physically, emotionally and spiritually abused, urging the government to classify the school and its associated church as a system of group-based coercive control.
The inquiry also heard the school leveraged its government funding, fees and donations to amass a property portfolio worth an estimated $140 million.
Former elder Glenn Frost testified that the school continually bought properties to house staff and community members and that he had been responsible for overseeing the portfolio in his time at the North Parramatta private school.
He said he hoped the inquiry would help the NSW government recognise group-based coercive control. “My hope is that no child grows up believing they are free, only to discover decades later that they never truly have a choice,” Frost said. “I genuinely believed I was free. It was only after leaving that I realised I had never truly been free to choose.”
Alexandra Garth, granddaughter of church founder Noel Cannon, echoed this sentiment. “I was born into this system,” Garth said. “I knew no other life.
“How can consent be genuine when you have never known an alternative?” she asked the committee. “When those in authority control almost every aspect of your life, and when refusing them may cost you everything you have ever known.”
‘Forced labour and servitude’
The probe into the Baptist school comes amid growing scrutiny and recognition of harm of high control groups – cults – in Australia.
NSW Anti-slavery Commissioner Dr James Cockayne testified that information presented to him suggests some of its staff and students may have been victims of forced labour and servitude.
Cockayne referred to a recent Victorian inquiry into cults, which found the conditions of labour exploitation, financial dependency and social control characteristics of coercive high-control groups are capable of satisfying the definitions of forced labour and servitude.
An anonymous survey conducted by Cockayne indicated patterns of coercion, he said. About 40 per cent of respondents reported restricted movement, social isolation, threats and shaming for non-compliance. Some spoke of having their identity documents withheld – a tactic Cockayne called a “fundamental way to exercise control”.
Other respondents defended the school, stating they worked out of love for Jesus and were “slaves to Christ”. Cockayne noted that “just as freedom of religion and association are fundamental human rights, so, too, is the freedom from slavery”. Cockayne called for the committee to extend its inquiry and consider referring the matter to the NSW Law Reform Commission to examine whether to create a new group-based coercive control offence.
Other submissions to Cockayne’s survey and the inquiry spoke of children having to share bedrooms with teachers, raising “quite serious questions” about the potential for abuse by unsupervised and unaccountable adults.
Carol Matthews, branch secretary of the NSW Independent Education Union, called the school “unique in NSW”. She highlighted the school’s reliance on a volunteer core staff, pointing specifically to the year 13 program requiring church youth to complete a year of unpaid labour after graduating, and described the program as “clearly exploitative”.
She told the inquiry she knew of no other school that had zero staff, nor a situation where children were placed in the homes of teachers, including the school principal, and single staff members.
“These days it would be considered extremely unusual to have one staff member alone with students overnight,” she said.
Survivors and former staff testified that children were at risk of harm with “no one to report to”, as all mandatory reporting issues were directed to principal and head elder Jonathan Cannon. Former teacher Murray Garth said reporting abuse was a “completely pointless act” that only risked retaliation.
Adam Gibson tearfully recounted being separated from his family for large portions of his childhood to live in Jonathan Cannon’s house. “I cannot sit on the sideline and pretend it’s not happening,” Gibson said. “I have a family and a little boy. And to imagine putting him through what I went through breaks my heart.”
Gibson said he was speaking for “all the little boys and all the little girls who are going through what I went through and to tell them that it will be OK”.
Alexandra Garth and another former student, Sam Gibson, spoke of being sexually assaulted at the school.
Sam Gibson testified his alleged sexual abuser continued to work at the school for years. He also described being caned upwards of 50 times by church founder Noel Cannon, stating, “Punishment is rife and was used as a weapon… It was dished out like there was no tomorrow.”
Whistleblower Michael Jones urged the government to strip the school’s teaching registration, force it to pay market wages, and hold leadership accountable for decades of alleged unethical action.
Another submission by former student Danny Nowlan described Redeemer’s teachings as “fire and brimstone on acid”, with “extreme patriarchal control”. He said the school environment had exhibited the “building blocks of cult-like behaviour” and then-principal Noel Cannon was revered by teachers with “near deity attention”.
Despite his criticisms, the former student argued the school “needs reform” but ultimately “deserves to survive”.
In a submission to the inquiry, Redeemer Baptist School expressed concern over a “trial by media”. Headmaster Russell Bailey stated that in its 45-year history, the school “has never been in breach of its legal obligations”.
Redeemer has been invited to attend the next hearing, on Friday.
Emily Kowal is a Walkley award-winning education reporter for The Sydney Morning Herald.Connect via email.From our partners
Read the full article here
