Gloriavale isn’t a safe place for children, according to a group that supports people who leave the reclusive Christian community.
It comes as 1 NEWS revealed this morning Gloriavale Christian School is the focus of a new police inquiry into child abuse. Police, Oranga Tamariki and the Ministry of Education confirmed the investigation into the West Coast school after questions were raised by 1 NEWS.
Liz Gregory, the manager of the Gloriavale Leavers' Support Trust, told Breakfast it was “appropriate” the school was being investigated. But, she questioned why it had taken so long despite the number of news reports and investigations into Gloriavale over the years.
“I can’t fathom it quite frankly,” she said of how long it had taken given “there is a group of people in our country who are not safe”.
“There are lovely people living there [in Gloriavale] who are not offenders themselves and they go to town and have inappropriate things done to them. It hurts people.
“The constant media is difficult, and yet we have found it seems like it’s the only way to get some attention because there are people being harmed, and the people living there need better.”
It’s believed some staff at the Gloriavale Christian School have been stood down. Two-hundred-and-four students from year 1 to 11 attend the school, which is 60 kilometres from Greymouth.
Police and Oranga Tamariki said they wouldn’t comment further while the investigation was underway.
1 NEWS and Breakfast have repeatedly offered Gloriavale’s leaders a chance to respond to allegations, but these haven’t been taken up.
Gregory said she suspected staff had been stood down over allegations of harsh punishments against students.
She said that was on top of the “various types of abuse” that were already widely known in Gloriavale. For example, last week, a former Gloriavale man pleaded guilty to a raft of sexual offending against children from his time in the community.
Gregory said, in her opinion, the community “is not an appropriate place for children”.
“I think that’s obvious when you have this number of teachers being looked at and there’s a deep concern with the school.”
She said those who left the community were often keen to talk to the Gloriavale Leavers' Support Trust.
Those who tell their stories often speak of humiliation and a culture where girls are blamed, Gregory said.
She alleged victims are “silenced”, and some offenders who want to come forward “have been silenced” by the community’s leaders because they wanted to maintain a positive image of Gloriavale.
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