Sydney private school The King's School has rejected a proposed royal commission finding that it was guilty of a "catastrophic failure" in its handling of a child sexual assault allegation.
David Lloyd, counsel assisting the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, said in a publicly-released submission that the school was advised to report the allegation to police but failed to do so.
The assault allegation involved an incident at a school cadet camp in 2013 where a student masturbated on another student's sleeping bag.
Public hearings were held into the allegation last year detailing the claim and school's response.
Written submissions and potential findings were released publicly for the first time on Monday.
The commission was told that The King's School's former headmaster Timothy Hawkes was told about the assault allegation.
It also heard Dr Hawkes had access to an email from a police officer in August 2013 stating "the cadet incident needed to be reported to police and that it might be a criminal offence not to report the matter to police".
However, no report was made to police.
School rejects claim of bullying culture
In his submission released on Monday, Mr Lloyd said the failure to report the camp incident to police contrary to written advice from the police was a "catastrophic failure by King's".
"As of 2013, a bullying culture existed at King's both inside the boarding houses and in the school more generally," he said.
He said measures taken by the school to address the bullying of the student allegedly subjected to the assault were "ineffective".
However, in its submission, The King's School said there was "no evidence" for any of the royal commission's six proposed findings.
"It is respectfully submitted that rhetorical flourishes in the course of cross-examination should not be used as a basis for factual findings," the school said in its submission.
"The expression 'catastrophic' in this context is misplaced and exaggerated. This finding should be rejected in its entirety."
The school's submission said Dr Hawkes' evidence about the email was that he neither remembered receiving it, nor recalled reading it.
The school also rejected the claims of a bullying culture.
"The treatment of one student cannot serve as evidence of a 'bullying culture' existing at the school," it said.
The royal commission is due to hand down its final report with findings and recommendations by the end of the year.
