Is St Joseph’s Ipswich some kind of pedo magnet? This last week in the Ipswich Star
https://www.ipswichstar.co.uk/news/crime/former-ipswich-teacher-accused-of-sex-crimes-8430922
suggests it certainly was up until the 90’s so it does rather beg the question, what’s been done since then to ensure pupil safety? My natural instinct, rooted in my deeply disturbing experiences there, is to suspect nothing has been done. I look at the super smiley images of apparently happy, well-adjusted kids in their marketing material and can’t help thinking it looks like the perfect cover. I desperately hope I am wrong but over the years have learnt to trust my gut feelings.
Be that as it may, some developments. I read that De La Salle have at last asked police to investigate all allegations against their order. That’s good . Coincidentally (or not) I’ve now had more memories returning from the blanked out two years or so. I’m currently ‘between therapists’ as previous one was unable to continue due to family commitments but having learnt a few good techniques, I am finding that memories associated with the time around the main trauma/s are coming back. For instance, I was thinking of the Eastern Counties bus I used to catch (or miss when things got too bad) when I suddenly remembered a lad I had become friends with. I remembered his house just up the road from ours, where he got on the bus, then I remembered ringing his mum to ask if he could play, then his name, then the fact we were mates for two or three years and would go on bike rides together and finally, his moving away from the area. This was a significant friendship! Wiped until last month! I value my friendships dearly so does this not demonstrate that yes, I most definitely did shut my brain’s memory banks down somehow around that time in the early 1970s?
It was bizarre and encouraging to realise that everything is still stored up there. Now I am getting the faintest recollections of less pleasant events concerning _ . Perhaps I’ll be able to give police a fuller account soon. Another penny has dropped too. I've always had a kind of throat-clearing cough which I had always rationalised was because of the smoking for a few years. It occurs to me only now that it may well be linked to a vague memory of throwing up in a field entrance en route to school in _'s car. (the longest route) And then there's a pain I have always had in my left rib. Kind of where a gear stick would poke into a passenger if they were made to lean across. Ugh. I mentioned it to my sister and my wife and they've both said they've thought of that scenario but didn't want to put ideas into my mind. It seems my mind has been working very hard to push away and not recall something.
I just need to find a safe enough place /person to ‘let it all out’. I don’t think my wife should have to deal with that. She’s put up with enough as it is when it comes to my panic attacks and particular behaviours concerning all kinds of things.
And if the plaintiff in that case linked above happens to be reading, my sincere sympathies for what you’re having to endure and thank you for your courage and determination to bring that to court. I watch with interest and am rooting for you all the way. I also urge any former members of staff and pupils of St Joseph’s, Birkfield, Ipswich to come forward and report to police any information relating to criminal activity . This is not revenge. We have a duty to protect kids if we know something .
