'Vindication': apology for survivors of school abuse

"It was quite a surreal feeling," he told AAP on Thursday, hours after Premier Ben Carroll delivered the apology on behalf of the state government. 

"Vindication is pretty much top of my mind. 

"What we said was happening ... and it's been well and truly proven."

Mr Fearnett was a 10-year-old student of Beaumaris Primary School when he was abused by a since-convicted pedophile. 

Decades would pass before he realised he was not the exception, after multiple students brought complaints about their time at the school, southeast of Melbourne.

Those accounts, largely from the 1960s and 1970s, led to the establishment in mid-2023 of a board of inquiry into historical abuse at Beaumaris and certain other government schools.

It heard from about 120 victims and other affected community members.

Its 2024 final report found perpetrators took advantage of weak regulations and a cover-up culture.

The state government accepted all nine of the recommendations, including a parliamentary apology and a truth-telling and accountability process.

Reflecting on that report and subsequent probes, Mr Carroll said it was clear the Victorian government had failed public school students and their families. 

"We failed to protect you," he told the house.

"We failed to listen when you tried to disclose or explain what was done to you. We failed to act with urgency, responsibility, and care that you deserved."

Opposition Leader Jess Wilson said Victorian schools had betrayed the trust placed in them by families to keep their children safe.

"It was betrayed in the most profound and life-altering of ways," she said.

She cited recent allegations of sexual abuse at Victorian childcare centres as proof child safety failures continued to this day.

"The details differ from the historical child sexual abuse for which we apologise today," she said.

"But the pattern does not."

It was the opposition leader's account of education officials failing to act on complaints when they were first raised that most impressed Mr Fearnett.

"That really highlighted the bigger issue here," he said.

"It was a systemic failure and I think that's what we've been banging on about for the last five years."

Opposition education spokesman Brad Rowswell said offences committed at government schools were as great, if not greater, than those at other institutions.

Mr Rowswell, who has played a leading role in seeking recognition for school abuse victim-survivors, said the apology was only a starting point.

"From this point, every one of us must be judged solely on our actions," he said.

Mr Fearnett knows what he went through was a crime and he and his loved ones live with its consequences everyday.

But hearing the accounts of the hundreds of students who had been preyed upon like himself, he couldn't help feeling he'd got off easy.

"I consider myself pretty lucky in the scheme of things," he said. 

The apology coincided with an announcement from law firm Arnold Thomas and Becker that it was investigating abuse allegations on behalf of more than 600 former students from 350 Victorian schools.

It claimed hundreds of additional survivors had come forward since it first published a list of schools linked to its investigations in September 2023.

While the claims stretch back to the 1950s, some concern abuse alleged to have occurred as recently as 2024.

"We've been shocked to find that we are not only hearing historical allegations," said Kim Price, head of the firm's institutional abuse practice.

The Victorian government has implemented a raft of reforms to improve student safety at public schools in recent decades, including stricter vetting and checks for school staff and stronger reporting pathways.

1800 RESPECT (1800 737 732)

National Sexual Abuse and Redress Support Service 1800 211 028

Lifeline 13 11 14

Kids Helpline 1800 55 1800 (for people aged 5 to 25)