After St Kevins, institutions can no longer hide from justice

Like so many institutions, St Kevin's College sacrificed the children in its care on the altar of its own survival.

St Kevin's College, the elite private boy's school in Melbourne, stands in the public glare as an institution that has learned nothing.

Considering that two children sexually assaulted by Cardinal George Pell over 20 years ago were also St Kevin's boys, that might seem particularly surprising. It's not.

Far away on the same day, another institution fell. The Boy Scouts of America filed for bankruptcy, brought down by a flood of claims by former scouts of historical sexual assaults. That's significant.

As I write this, St Kevin's headmaster Stephen Russell, who gave a character reference to a convicted paedophile who had groomed a 14-year-old student, has resigned due to the deepening scandal triggered by a Four Corners report on St Kevin's institutional failure.