Victims at summer camp? – The case of abuse involving teachers is expanding

This ex-teacher, who according to information from the APA had to stop teaching at a Viennese secondary school due to accusations of assault, and another acquaintance of the sports teacher, is suspected of sexual abuse of minors and abuse of a relationship of authority. The advertisement is still being checked, but no concrete investigations have yet been taken against the two suspects after providing the extensive report of the facts, said Public Prosecution Service spokeswoman Nina Bussek on Thursday.

Attacking in the club
However, the sports association responsible for the club where all three suspects worked has responded. The sports teacher, who committed suicide in the spring of 2019 after a complaint was filed against him, had lured several of his students to the club where he held a leadership position at the time. Attacks would also have taken place in this setting. The educator initially brought his colleague, who had been discharged from school, to the club and started working as a trainer. While he left or was forced to leave the club following the sports teacher’s suicide under circumstances calling for clarification – there may have been concrete allegations of abuse against him – the third suspect – a former student of the sports teacher – continued to work there. Last December, he was elected vice president.

After the advertisement became known, in which he was described as an accomplice of the sports teacher – he was presumed innocent like the suspected ex-teacher – he was temporarily relieved of all functions by the responsible sports association, since the association announced on Thursday. The man was not only active in the respective club until the end, but also gave courses in various sports across clubs.

As the sports association pointed out to the APA, allegations of abuse around the club first emerged on September 16, 2019, targeting the sports teacher who died in May 2019. On October 2, 2019, there was a meeting between the state association and those responsible for the association in the presence of men’s counseling and a child protection facility to clarify and process what had happened. Thereafter, the further procedure was determined. At that time, nothing was known about attacks in the association against children and young people, and after that no one was reported, according to the association. Child protection training was offered and conducted for association employees, with nearly two dozen people participating.

Missing report and research file
In retrospect, it is surprising that nothing unusual was noticed at the Vienna high school, where the prime suspect had worked as a pragmatist sports teacher since 1996 and allegedly abused boys for years. Because already in 2013, a former participant in a holiday camp on Lake Wolfgang registered him, where the teacher worked as a supervisor during the summer holidays. The person concerned stated that he was mistreated during the massage. The sports teacher was questioned as a suspect by the State Criminal Investigation Service of Lower Austria – but it should never have led to an investigation, let alone an indictment.

The Wels and Salzburg prosecutor’s offices, responsible for the alleged crime scene, recently said when asked by APA that there was no investigation file. The public prosecutor’s office in Vienna, where the suspect lived, confirmed on Thursday in response to another APA request that, apart from the 2019 proceedings, there had been no proceedings against the educator, who was halted after his suicide. For events on Lake Wolfgang, “we would not be the locally responsible authority,” said media spokeswoman Bussek.

With students in the sauna
At the high school itself, there were complaints from parents and students about the physical education teacher, some of which could be registered for the APA on Thursday. For example, during a ski course in Salzburg, a student may have spent the night in the physical education teacher’s room, which the classmates found strange. They talked about it with other teachers, who would have brushed it off with the comment that the student was “just homesick”. On the same ski course, the sports teacher is said to have entered the sauna with the students and took pictures, which were then circulated on USB sticks. Some parents noticed this – the school management would not have responded to their complaints.

When the sports teacher was searched in the spring of 2019, a new director had taken over the school board a few months earlier. As early as the late summer of 2019, a witness and his mother went to the education department and complained about the new principal because nothing had happened within the school following the abuse allegations that arose in the course of the teacher’s suicide.