Former students of western Sydney’s Redeemer Baptist School told a New South Wales parliamentary inquiry on Monday that teenagers were made to share beds with teachers and that principal Jonathon Cannon once walked naked through a common living area. The parliamentary committee is investigating the management of the Parramatta-based religious school and oversight from government bodies.
Edward Garth, 23, testified before the committee about a study-stay during school holidays when he slept in the same building as principal and church elder Jonathon Cannon. Garth told lawmakers he was shunned after “escaping” the broader Redeemer community in November.
“I remember one night before dinner, I was in the kitchen getting a drink,” Garth told the committee.
“As I walked into the living room, which was my bedroom at the time, I saw [Cannon], my principal, walk out of the bathroom into the living room naked before heading to his room.”
Garth stated that Cannon appeared startled upon seeing him and ran to his room. Garth testified that he reported the incident, but the complaint was routed back to Jonathon Cannon, his brother Noel Cannon, and the student’s own parents, who subsequently scolded him.
School Camps and Bed-Sharing Allegations
Another former student, Emma Hughes, detailed an institutional culture that left students with significant emotional hurdles to process as adults. School camps away from parents generated acute anxiety, according to her testimony.
Hughes told the inquiry that students occasionally shared beds with teachers in caravan parks or school-owned cabins simply to conserve space. Her written submission noted that nothing untoward occurred to her personally during these arrangements.
“Usually, the student would be a community member, which in itself says they knew maybe they shouldn’t be doing it,” Hughes said.
“But I recall when I was in year 6, I would share a bed with [a] teacher, and in an effort to be fair, she made it so we would rotate every night … so that we all didn’t have to.”
Staff members, frequently addressed by kinship titles such as “uncle,” routinely bypassed standard conversational boundaries, Hughes added. She noted that personal matters were regularly discussed in public forums and that the concept of personal boundaries was poorly understood by the staff at Redeemer compared to typical educational institutions.
Surveillance and Public Discipline
The inquiry also heard evidence regarding an internal emphasis on surveillance, peer reporting, and public humiliation. Hughes described an incident where teachers intercepted a love note between a boy and a girl in year 7.
Noel Cannon read the note aloud to a collection of students before the pair were dressed-down in front of four year groups and multiple teachers, according to the testimony.
The parliamentary committee is examining how the school is managed and what oversight government bodies exercised over its operations. Records reveal that the Communities and Justice Department received 15 risks of significant harm notifications concerning the school since 2004, though none triggered a field assessment.
| Inquiry Detail | Recorded Fact |
|---|---|
| School Name | Redeemer Baptist School |
| Location | Parramatta, Western Sydney |
| Date of Inquiry Hearing | Monday |
| Harm Notifications (2004–Present) | 15 risks of significant harm lodged with the Communities and Justice Department |
Jonathon Cannon and other representatives of the school were invited to appear before the inquiry to present the institution’s perspective. Committee chair Abigail Boyd expressed public disappointment that an attempted formal summons for school representatives to appear went unanswered.
