Controversy
The school came under controversy when Frederick Roy Hoskins, a former teacher, boarding house head, and Father of the Year at the school, pleaded guilty in May 2004 to 16 child sex offences committed against seven victims aged nine to fifteen between 1947 and 1955. He continued to teach for 40 years. The crimes were not made public until plans were made to name a building after the teacher.
Between 1985 and 2001, the school had employed chaplain Robert Sharwood, later convicted of seven counts of indecently assaulting a 14 year old boy through means of kissing, fondling, oral sex and masturbation of a period of two years. Sharwood was convicted and sentenced to 33 months imprisonment.
In January 2002, an ex-student of the school came out and publicly spoke about being sexually abused by his gymnastics coach in 1989 and 1992, however, the accused staff member was not removed from the school until 1993 when a complaint was made about an unrelated incident in Sydney.
The school has had recurring brawls with local state school students. In June 2006 Headmaster Jonathon Hensmen banned students from Coorparoo railway station to stop the violence. Such gang violence between the school and other surrounding state schools had been evident for three months before action was taken by the school. In a similar (though unrelated) incident on Stradbroke Island, an Anglican church Grammar School student was the victim of assault while attempting to defend fellow students who were being chased by locals.
In 2008, three Year 9 Churchie students were accused of charges of rape, attempted rape and indecent dealing after allegedly raping a female Year 9 student from another school in Hamilton, Queensland. The headmaster was unavailable for comment on the subject. On 23 August 2008, The Sunday Mail and City News revealed details of the first hearing of the case and that the students were from the Anglican Church Grammar School and the victim was a then student at nearby Somerville House. They were not charged.
During April 2008, there was some community debate when students were told they were not able to take male partners to the school formal. The school's Headmaster referred the matter to the school's council who released a statement, which included that the council "strongly supported the headmaster's position on the school's education programs in social settings".
In October 2009, the deputy principal of the preparatory school, Chris Klemm, was stood down due to "serious allegations" made against him. The Headmaster issued letters to all parents regarding the matter, but has kept the allegation, which was revealed in the mid-semester holiday break, confidential. The Churchie Old Boys' Association President, Guy Williams, condemned the handling of the investigation as he didn't receive a copy of the letter and had to be phoned by someone else to be informed of what had happened. In November 2010, Klemm was convicted and received a jail sentence for five years after spending 15 months in custody. The Brisbane District Court was told Klemm struggled with his sexuality and performed sexual acts and sodomised a student over seven years. Klemm claimed that he had become infatuated with the boy and developed a 'true love' for him.
Read more about this topic: Anglican Church Grammar School
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“Ours was a highly activist administration, with a lot of controversy involved ... but I’m not sure that it would be inconsistent with my own political nature to do it differently if I had it to do all over again.”
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