News | 15 May 2023
To all parents and guardians
I understand and acknowledge the different concerns and emotions that many of you are feeling. Both myself and my staff are also in shock and going through emotions, as we have worked side by side with this person for a very long time. It is a tragic, traumatic and unacceptable situation. I am deeply affected by this situation and my heart and focus is 100% on my students, staff and families.
No matter what, this is a horrible situation and I want to answer some questions we have been getting. There are no naked pictures of any children taken at the school. The pictures which were taken are random pictures of students with clothing on. These pictures were then used to make pornographic material. We do not know which students are directly involved with having their pictures edited. This is the criminal act which the police were involved with investigating. I am very grateful that the police discovered this. We do police background checks for all of our staff at the start of every school year.
When the police originally took him into custody, we were not told why. When we contacted the prosecutor, we were told that we were not allowed to speak with anyone until the 15 th of May. I completely understand that if you feel you would have liked to have had information earlier, but we were not allowed to due to the investigation. Information started to leak out last week, which is why it happened the way it did. I am glad that we already had resources and a plan in place. The cooperation with the police and the prosecutor has been very good during this time and we are thankful for their work.
Those students who are currently attending the school who have had their pictures edited have already been contacted by the police during the weekend. From what I have understood, so have most if not all of the former students. We want to make sure that these students and families are helped first of foremost, but we know that many others are deeply affected by this as well.
I am very grateful for the support from our head office together with the crisis support group, ReactRisk. These resources were at the school on Friday and will be available for the coming week and if necessary even longer. All families are welcome to reach out to the school and they will be received at our Junior Club, between 9.00-13.00, Monday - Wednesday, where they can talk to members of the leadership team or to crisis experts. ReactRisk can also be reached by phone at 076-0066509.
When this terrible situation became official, the school received some more information from different sources around this person. It has been about children who have not felt safe but have not reached out before. It is very important that if anyone has new information which has not been reported that you get it to the school, or to the police, as soon as possible. You can send that information via any person you feel safe with at school so that we can follow our procedures, investigate and report it further to the authorities.
We are doing everything we can to answer all your questions, feedback and reflections. We are also going through all our documentation and routines to see how we could have done differently. This includes the investigation that was done in 2021, which we did in cooperation with our head office and followed all legal procedures. This case in question was appealed back in spring term 2022 and we are still waiting for the decision from the Discrimination Ombudsman (DO).
Monday morning we will host assemblies with the students by year group. We will give them similar information adapted by age. The team of people who have been in the school since Friday will be present so the students recognize who these people are. Any child that needs to talk to these experts will be able to do so. These talks can be done with guardians. Our own Student Care Team, which consists of qualified professionals, is also available.
I know that this is a huge crisis and I understand that there are a lot of emotions, questions and frustration. I also recognize that there is a feeling of broken trust. Our goal, as it always has been, is to continue to have a school which feels safe and where we can focus on learning. The person who has committed these crimes is not at school and will not be returning.
Now, we want to make sure that everyone can feel safe and it is very important out of respect for the victims and for everyone that we help by not spreading rumours. We are very thankful for your patience and your understanding.
Together with our Head Office who has always been supporting me and my decisions we will continue to reflect on this. Again, my heart goes out to everyone as the leader of the school.
Brian Tucek
Principal