A standing ovation to Matt Nippert in the NZ Herald over the weekend for this astounding story of abuse at the hands of a state backed boot camp…
‘Forced to dig their own graves’
Young people sent to a state-run boot camp on Great Barrier Island were made to dig what they were told would be their own graves and concerned staff blowing the whistle were ignored, according to a Weekend Herald investigation.Residents of the camp were allegedly subjected to a culture described as akin to Lord of the Flies that resulted in one boy circumcising himself with a blunt knife in order to leave the island.
The incidents have come to light following long-delayed High Court claims by nearly 40 residents of Whakapakari Youth Trust alleging horrific mistreatment between 1988 and 2004 at the Child, Youth and Family-contracted facility.
The claims, brought by Wellington law firm Cooper Legal, have languished for nearly ten years in the legal system and are still without a court date, sparking claims the Government is trying to cover up the serious mistreatment of children.
…the idea that as little as a decade ago we were funding abusive boot camps where children were hurt and abused is as jaw dropping as the Government’s constant attempt to bury this case and hide how badly treated these kids were.
Bootcamps don’t work, they merely sate the anger of the ill educated to give younger generations a kick up the bum to satisfy their own insecurities and chips on shoulder.
Nippert’s excellent piece of journalism follows another extraordinary piece penned by Jared Savage as he contextualises the appalling life of the young man who killed Henderson dairy owner Arun Kumar. It is difficult to see that young persons horrific past and not feel that as a society we have let that young killer down as badly as Arun Kumar’s family was let down.
The lack of care we subject the young and damaged to should be a national shame, the fact that a stupid flag debate has been allowed to take so much media attention away from the way we are treating them is an indictment upon us as a community.
I very rarely have anything pleasant to say about the NZ Herald, but their coverage of those two stories are surely some of the best journalism the paper has done this year.
These certainly are good pieces of journalism and probably being in the Herald they really stick out but there are good reasons why they made it through the Herald’s self imposed “fit to print”filter.
The Jared Savage article gets through because the government has singnaled it’s open season on government owned social services – all in the name of privatising social servies of course.
The Nippert piece gets through because it’s no real challange to the status quo – especially as it happened on Labour’s watch.
Definitely don’t intend to denigrate the articles and certainly they show what the Herald could do if it would let it’s journalists off their leash
Well said Martyn. Two excellent articles that had my attention from the first to the last words.
So it begs the question why he is working for a loser outfit like the Nat Herald? Probably they didn’t realize how good he was when they hired him.
Nippert is no slouch and can write really well. Simon Collins is always worth reading.
Wow, I would have thought, this may have happened at the foothills of the Andes, in the hinterland of Colombia, where military face off with FARC rebels, or so.
Is this for real, has this happened in NZ Aotearoa?
Don’t tell me this is the reality here already?!
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