Mother of a boy among 15 children allegedly sexually abused by a 4-year-old at kindy is angry incident was ‘ignored.’

A four-year-old boy sexually abusing other students should have sent out warning signals to teachers, child protection authorities and police but instead it was dismissed  as ‘mothers are making up stories’ and developmentally “appropriate.”

A series of incidents at South Australian kindergarten has divided a town and devastated a community and yet 10 months after the alleged abuse took place the four-year-old boy remains at the kindergarten.

The South Australian mother  of one of his 15 alleged victims has spoken out about the alleged sexual abuse of students at the kindergarten by the four-year-old-boy saying she is furious it was “swept under the carpet” by the South Australian Education Department.

The Advertiser reports that her son was one of the alleged victims who was abused around May last year.

“My child was repeatedly abused and it was ignored,” she told The Advertiser.

“As a total, there were 15 children affected with reports also involving out of school hours care.”

She says she first became aware that her child had been allegedly abused when she received a call from the centre.

“I went to work and received a call about 2:30pm saying my child was hysterical and the teacher was unable to calm him down and there had been another incident,” she said.

“What my child disclosed has haunted our family ever since.”

She said that the staff dismissed the boy’s behaviour as “normal” and developmentally appropriate.

“One teacher had said to a mother — whose child disclosed extremely disturbing behaviour — that, ‘there is nothing that we can see about the boy in question’s behaviour that is of a concern, it’s absolutely normal behaviour.”

“Staff had told parents that ‘mothers are making up stories’ and ‘it was all age appropriate’,” she said.

The mother said she has pulled her son from the kindergarten and now travels 60km to and from the next closest centre.

She told The Advertiser that the scandal has “caused a schism in our small community town.”

“The catastrophic effect has divided friendships, families and relationships,” she said.

Over 200 people attended a meeting in the town about the impact of “child-on-child abuse” last month organised by the parents of the victims.

University of South Australia Emeritus Professor Freda Briggs, who attended the meeting, told a Senate Inquiry that the boy who initiated the behaviour is still at the kindergarten and has to be accompanied by a supervising adult “at considerable expense to the taxpayer.”

She said the staff “ignored anal and oral sex accompanied by threats and secrecy” she says they dismissed it as “normal developmentally ­appropriate behavior.”

“It is apparent that if the situation was handled correctly initially, the detrimental traumatic impact to the children, families and site would have been minimised” she said.

“The issue for us isn’t the perpetrator or their family at all, it’s the way it was mishandled and swept under the carpet.”

News Limited reports that Professor Briggs said that there were three reasons a child would sexually abuse another child. Firstly it could be that they had been exposed to pornography and then they repeated it, the boy could have been traumatised by sexual abuse and repeat it or have inappropriately witnessed sexual activity at home.

“All of the above constitute child abuse and should be reported, investigated and therapy provided (by specialists),” she submitted.

“The problem is that neither teachers, police nor social workers appear to be trained to take these behaviours seriously and respond appropriately.”

In a statement, a Department of Education and Child Development spokesman told News Limited that the sexual abuse incident was being managed by the area’s education director.

“Senior staff from the chief executive, down have been working through this situation with the families involved.

“The welfare of the children remains our priority.”

The Education Department said there was “significant concern.”

“The apparent increase in inappropriate sexualised behaviours among children is of significant concern for everyone involved in child wellbeing,” he said.

“Teachers and child protection professionals have been responding to the incidents and working with parents when such cases are identified.

“In response to the increasing prevalence and complexity of these behaviours, the department has updated procedures to ensure the response by individual staff and the agency is timely and appropriate.”