Inside the suburban schools attended by members of the political elite, where sexual purity is prized.
At the end of each academic year, a graduating group of schoolgirls gathers in identical white gowns.
The dresses are supposed to symbolise purity. It's a tradition that has carried on for decades at Tangara School for Girls in Sydney's suburban Hills district.
But Isabella Kershaw remembers a disturbing side to the purity culture at her school.
She is haunted by a particular exercise involving a piece of sticky tape being passed from girl to girl around the classroom.
"By the time it got to the last person, it was handed back to the teacher, and by that point the sticky tape was a bit grotty and not sticky anymore," she says.
"The teacher said to us, 'That's what happens to you when you have sex before marriage, when you have multiple partners. You're not useful anymore, you're not valuable anymore, you're not worthwhile anymore because you're dirty and unusable'."
Isabella, who graduated from school in 2020 but left Tangara earlier because of her experiences there, purses her lips and looks at the ceiling.
Four Corners has heard similar stories from dozens of former students of Tangara and its brother school, Redfield College, which are both affiliated with the small-but-powerful Catholic organisation known as Opus Dei.
In interviews with more than 30 alumni and some parents, more disturbing practices have been alleged.
Students say they were told that watching pornography caused holes in the brain, girls were discouraged from getting a life-saving cancer vaccine, pages on the curriculum were ripped out or redacted from text books, homophobia was rife and there were persistent attempts to recruit school students to Opus Dei.
Many former students say their schooling left them with psychological damage.
NSW premier announces investigation into schools
After Four Corners contacted the New South Wales premier about these allegations, Dominic Perrottet immediately asked the NSW Education Standards Authority to launch an investigation into the schools.
"The allegations should be investigated by the appropriate state body," a spokesperson for the premier said.
The schools have been attended by the children of numerous former and current New South Wales politicians.
Mr Perrottet was school captain at Redfield College in 2000. Many staffers and candidates for pre-selection for the New South Wales Liberal government also went to the schools and have been involved in this community.
Coming from a family of 12 children, Mr Perrottet and his siblings also attended the schools. His parents have described themselves as Opus Dei supernumeraries — that is, married members of the organisation.
Opus Dei is a small-but-powerful prelature of the Catholic Church, with about 650 Australian members. The schools affiliated with Opus Dei are Independent schools that run outside the Catholic Education system. They were established by a group of parents in the 1980s known as the Pared Foundation.
Tangara's funding has increased substantially in the past five years and, in 2021, it received $5 million from state and federal governments. Almost $3.9 million came from the Commonwealth and almost $1.1 from the New South Wales government.
In 2021, Redfield received $2.7 million from the Commonwealth and $850,000 from the New South Wales government.
Mr Perrottet has attended the schools in his official capacity and featured students in his promotional material.
The premier did not respond to any of Four Corners' specific questions about the schools or Opus Dei.
Girls and parents told HPV vaccine promotes promiscuity
Along with the schools' strict teachings around sexual purity, one of the most persistent allegations from graduates, and some parents, is that they were discouraged by Tangara from getting the HPV cervical cancer vaccine.
The girls and their parents say they were told it would promote promiscuity and they were expected to marry as virgins.
"Helen", a parent of the Class of 2020, told Four Corners she "received correspondence from the school saying how they were obligated to tell us the HPV vaccine was available for our children, although they felt as a school body that it was unnecessary".
At a subsequent school meeting, Helen was horrified to hear the speakers discouraging the vaccine on the grounds that the girls would not need it because they would only have one sexual partner.
In a testimonial written for Four Corners, Helen says that, when another mother challenged this, "there was a noticeable cooling of the room, and she was stared down by other parents in attendance and her comment was not responded to by the presenters".
The HPV vaccine is free for all Australian school children aged 12 to 13 and it prevents several cancers in both men and women, as well as protecting against almost all cases of genital warts.
Sam Green, a 2009 Tangara graduate, also remembers a letter being sent home saying the school had to offer the vaccine, but didn't recommend it because it promoted promiscuity and encouraged girls to sleep around and be unvirtuous to their future husbands.
She says "the letter worked" and only three or four girls from her year had the vaccine.
When Sam raised her hand in class to go to get the vaccine with one other girl in her class, she describes a "walk of shame".
"[The teacher] launched into us and was telling us it was a terrible idea for us to go and get this vaccine, it was encouraging us to go and sleep around, we are going to be sluts when we are older," she says.
"I raised the very valid point with her that I could get this virus from my husband which, of course, fell on deaf ears.
"And, yeah, she basically told us not to come back after we'd had the vaccine, back to that class."
That teacher is still working for a school run by the Pared Foundation, which oversees Tangara and Redfield, among other schools.
In a statement responding to these allegations, Tangara admits it wrote to parents about the vaccine "prior to 2020", when it claims the inoculation was "relatively new".
By 2020, the vaccine had been given in schools for 13 years.
"Tangara was attempting to ensure parents were fully informed about the vaccine and its potential risks by sharing medical and other information from the media with them," the school's statement says.
It goes on to say they now provide information to students that's in line with accepted medical advice.
Girls given book that said masturbation was a disorder
The idea of chastity has always been drummed into Tangara girls, who are made to watch videos and attend speaker sessions where they are told that masturbation is mentally disordered behaviour, as is homosexuality.
A textbook provided to girls who graduated in the class of 2020 says masturbation is an "objective disorder", psychologists who condone it "have been duped" and that it is not even permissible for men undergoing fertility tests.
Redfield Old Boy Simon Carrington is a popular chastity speaker at the schools. He talks about abstaining from sex before marriage and the dangers of pornography and masturbation.
His Fire Up Ministries website is currently endorsed by the principals of Tangara and senior staff at Redfield.
"I struggled with masturbation and pornography for many years," Carrington said on his podcast, which appears on the Fire Up Ministries website, in December.
"Masturbation is an intrinsically and gravely disordered action."
Isabella Kershaw recalls one lesson in which the teacher showed them a picture of a brain scan and told them the dark sections they could see were "holes" that had been caused by watching pornography.
"Myself and my best friend at the time sort of immediately knew that wasn't real, because it would kill you if you had holes in your brain," Isabella says. "And we raised that with our teacher at the time and I was sent out of class."
Her mother requested a meeting at the school.
"We were told that it wasn't the information that was important, it was the sentiment and the morality and the principle," Isabella says.
"[We were] essentially told that truth and fact is secondary to your ethos."
Four Corners has spoken to recent graduates of Tangara who say they were also told that abortion and the contraceptive pill cause cancer.
They say they were shown graphic cartoon videos of abortions without parental consent that showed foetuses with their limbs ripped off, which were inaccurate depictions of how abortions are conducted in Australia.
"Following the video, many of my classmates, and myself included, were in tears, distraught and traumatised from the experience," "Sophie", a graduate of the class of 2020 wrote in a testimonial for Four Corners.
Sam Green remembers the video as well.
"It was emotive stuff. I was watching it thinking, 'Well, this isn't true. This isn't how it happens. This is completely incorrect.'"
One of the most-shocking stories that graduates consistently volunteer is that of Saint Maria Goretti, a child martyr who, Isabella says, they were taught to "idolise".
"What happened to her was really horrific," Isabella says.
Maria Goretti, 11, was stabbed to death after fighting back when her neighbour tried to rape her.
"She made the decision that she would rather die than go to hell for being a victim of rape," Isabella says.
"We were taught to glorify her and revere her as a symbol of chastity and purity and virginity and a teen saint that we should aspire to be like in our daily lives."
'Men are like cars, it's bad to rev the engine'
Tangara alumni who graduated as recently as 2021 told Four Corners they were taught the story of Maria Goretti in either late primary school or early high school.
"One analogy we were given was, 'Men are like cars, it's bad to rev the engine, but then not drive the car or leave it stuck in neutral'," says Sophia Harris, who graduated in 2008.
"Basically, the idea was that all of that teaching was focused around teaching us to behave in a certain way that we wouldn't lead men into temptation.
"And the idea there was that men couldn't control themselves, basically."
A PowerPoint presentation provided to Four Corners by a 2020 Redfield graduate shows a used car and a picture of duct tape that mirrors the "sticky tape" analogy described by Isabella Kershaw.
In a religion exam provided by the same student, it says: "Explain how having a series of casual sexual relationships before you're married is liking putting duct tape on your arm, unsticking it, and then sticking it to someone else's arm, then unsticking it again, then putting it on someone else's arm."
In a video of Year 8 Tangara girls, filmed for their future selves when they graduate Year 12, the dominant focus is on keeping their virginal purity.
"You should respect yourself and not be a slut," one of the Year 8 students says, to a chorus of laughter.
"Your virginity is a diamond, and you have to save it and keep it clean until you get your husband," another girl says.
Throughout the video, the teacher, who is still at Tangara and features heavily in the school's promotional material, can be heard laughing and encouraging the girls.
Four Corners has spoken to several of the young women who appear in the video, who are appalled when they look back at what their young selves were encouraged to say.
Professor Clare Monagle is a theological historian at Macquarie University. Her uncle was one of the founding parents who set up the schools connected to Opus Dei.
She says Opus Dei members believe in "an organised, institutional hierarchical church" and the idea that "parents should create home as a church and that the role of education was to be a partner with the parents in this religious worldview formation".
Tangara and Redfield follow these principles.
"[Opus Dei is] not interested at all in what we've seen as some of the more progressive or liberalising movements in the Church," Professor Monagle says.
Teacher doesn't believe in sexual consent training
Martin Fitzgerald — a current teacher at Redfield College and an Opus Dei numerary who has been at the school for three decades — publicly stated in 2021 his opposition to sexual consent training for the students, saying only abstinence would work.
This was Mr Fitzgerald's response to the Harvey Weinstein #MeToo scandal in 2017:
"Sex is too powerful an urge to be 'negotiated'. The very notion of rational consent to powerful passions, especially when alcohol is involved, is absurd … Who was the bright spark who came up with the laughable proposal that men ask consent of women 'every step of the way'? The very idea that the men should be the askers is a tacit acknowledgement that the sex drives of men and women are not the same. This should be Sex Education 101. It is absurd to expect men to stop mid-stream and ask permission for the next move."
Redfield said in a statement to Four Corners that Mr Fitzgerald's views in a "polemic" article are "not necessarily representing the views of the college" and he won't be teaching consent classes. It says it will follow the new New South Wales curriculum on consent.
'I would eat my lunch in the toilets'
Four Corners has spoken to a group of gay alumni of Redfield College who say they were constantly told that homosexuality was a grave mortal sin that would damn them to hell.
Tim Pocock is a graduate of the Redfield class of 2003 and is now an actor who appears in films, including one of the X-Men series.
"I would spend all day at school hiding in the bathrooms so that I wouldn't be picked on by students," Tim says. "I would eat my lunch in the toilets."
"So, it's not just, 'You are different from me, so I'm going to punch you'," Tim says, "It's, 'You are different from me, I'm going to punch you and you're going to spend all of eternity in the fiery depths of hell because of something that you can't change about yourself.'"
Tim comes from a conservative Catholic family that includes his uncle, New South Wales Finance Minister Damien Tudehope.
Tim says that, because he believed what he was being taught at school, as a 12- and 13-year-old he would go to bed in tears most nights.
"I would pray with every fibre of my faith that I would wake up as a different person the next day," he says.
Redfield alumnus Jeremy Smith — who has also come out as gay since his schooling — is similarly scarred by his education and his upbringing in Opus Dei.
"It is cruelly ironic that Redfield's Latin school motto translates to 'The truth will set you free'," Jeremy says.
"Yet, myself and others were told to not only hide and repress our true sexuality but [to] also to change it.
"Redfield was not a place of truth but a place of secrets, lies and suffering.
"In an Opus Dei system, where we were taught suffering brings you closer to holiness, the effect on gay and straight students' mental health has led to tragic outcomes."
In a statement to Four Corners, the schools say that "no children are victimised because of their sexual orientation" and the safety and wellbeing of students is paramount.
Students in 'black book' targeted for Opus Dei recruitment
Both Redfield and Tangara are proud of their one-on-one "mentoring" system that each student receives for their spiritual, emotional and academic development.
But nothing in the school's marketing reveals that the mentors are often Opus Dei numeraries or supernumeraries.
Numeraries are celibate members of the organisation who live in study centres, while supernumeraries are married members of Opus Dei.
"I basically spent my years at Tangara trying to not be converted," Sam Green says.
Tim Pocock describes the recruitment attempts as a "360-degree assault".
After school, he and other students would go to the study centres where many of the numeraries lived, Eremeran for the girls and Nairana for the boys.
"One of the numeraries who lived in that facility would tap you on the shoulder and they would ask you about your life and, 'Have you started to notice girls? And what do you think about girls? And have you thought about joining Opus Dei?'" Tim says.
The schools claim that the study centres are independent entities, yet weekly newsletters shown to Four Corners show they heavily promote them, with advertisements for study supervision, camps and activities.
Ronan Williams was school captain at Redfield College and came from a very strict Opus Dei background.
He attended the Nairana study centre every day after school. While there one day, his best mate stumbled upon a black book with lists of boys' names.
"There were comments about what some of his weaknesses were, and maybe what overall strengths he could offer as a, I guess, recruit. I can't think of a better word, recruit is really the right word here," he says.
Alex was a 16-year-old student at Tangara when she was encouraged to join Opus Dei by a senior teacher who was also a numerary.
After she graduated from Tangara in 2012, Alex became a numerary and moved into the Eremeran study centre.
She has shown Four Corners her comprehensive diaries from her time inside the organisation and she says there was a clear intention to recruit teenagers from Tangara and Redfield to Opus Dei.
Stuck to her diaries are post-it notes with lists of names Four Corners recognised as former Tangara students: They are headed "YR 9".
Alex confirmed that the lists are 14- and 15-year-old students she, as a teenage numerary, was being encouraged to try to convert to Opus Dei while working with them at the organisation's Eremeran study centre.
"There were usually other people working in the centre [who] would liaise with you about the people that were attending and discuss with you who they thought were 'strong targets' for recruiting to Opus Dei as numeraries," Alex says.
"We were really encouraged to have a list so [that] every month … you could report back on what you'd actually done with those people, individually.
"So, they keep track of everything — there was a literal folder that had these people's names in it."
Alex says she was also aware of other numeraries who worked at the school, including one still on staff, who kept lists.
The Pared schools and Opus Dei denied in statements they attempt to recruit students and say they do not condone nor encourage the practice.
'If it didn't hurt, what was the point?'
When she moved into the Eremeran study centre at the age of 18, Alex says she was encouraged to engage in "self-mortification" — whipping herself with what's known as "the discipline" and wearing a spiky barbed wire-like chain around her thigh called "the cilice", which never stopped being painful.
"I think it was the idea that if it didn't hurt, what was the point?" Alex says.
"If it didn't hurt, what kind of graces were you winning for your sisters in Opus Dei, or the people that you were praying for to join Opus Dei?"
While she was whipping herself, she said, she was asking for God's graces for people she was trying to recruit — including the Year 9 students from Tangara.
"When I think of it now, it seems so wrong," Alex says.
"I was 18 at the time and, obviously, very impressionable and wanting to be a faithful numerary."
'Parents are in the dark'
Claire Harris graduated from Tangara in 2001, but when she set up a support group for alumni and began to receive testimonials, she was shocked to learn that little had changed since her time there.
"When I read these stories, I cried. It was extremely upsetting to hear that students … are having the exact same experiences that I had 20 and 25 years ago," she says.
She says she is devastated for Alex and the other students.
"It makes me extremely angry. I think that the schools are completely dishonest about what they are," she says.
"I think a lot of the parents at the schools are in the dark about what is happening inside those schools."
Alex now works in a prison and says her time in Opus Dei was also like a jail.
"It's so painful to think of the memories. It's so difficult to think of how it left me like a shell of myself," Alex says.
"There is so much from Tangara and Opus Dei that has left me as someone who feels very, very small."
Tim Pocock is also still coming to terms with his years in the schools and study centres of Opus Dei.
"It is hell on Earth and I wouldn't wish it on anyone," Tim says.
"I would hope that, if anyone out there is watching and has a position of power, to maybe just turn the eye onto these independent schools.
"And just make sure that the children that are being educated there aren't actually being psychologically harmed by the education that they are receiving — that's all that I can ask for."
Watch Purity: An education in Opus Dei on ABC iview.
Credits:
Story by: Louise Milligan, Mary Fallon and Stephanie Zillman
Digital Production: Brigid Andersen
Photography: Nick Wiggins, Ryan Sheridan
