Seton College ex-staff member speaks out over devastating closure

A former staff member of Brisbane’s Seton College has shared his despair at the planned closure of the school, saying some potential students could find themselves ‘expelled, uneducated, even in jail’.

A former Seton College staff member holds grave fears for the future of its students and despairs kids with similar needs will fall through the cracks if the planned closure of the school goes ahead.

Brisbane Catholic Education intends to shut the doors of the College, which has become regarded as a “safe refuge” for students with disabilities such as autism, at the end of 2024.

While the closure timeline allows some current students to complete Year 12 at the niche school, Year 7 students will be forced to move, while other families who had long intended sending their kids to Seton College have been turned away.

A former staff member who left the school at the end of 2020 said he believed many of the students would struggle to keep up in mainstream schools, with long-term consequences.

“What Seton does is very unique,” he said.

“We had the ability to adjust the assessments to work with these kids – there are different thought patterns between an average brain and an autistic brain.

“For a lot of these kids it’s not a school – it’s a home. Without places like it, they find themselves expelled, uneducated, even in jail.

“There is already a limited availability to a growing problem – at Seton, these kids finally felt like they have a place in society.

“I’m so mad at what they are doing.”

Seton College is due to close in 2024. Picture: Richard Walker

A Brisbane Catholic Education spokesman said there were more than 10,000 students with disability across BCE schools, with many catering extensively for students with equivalent or higher degree of need and complexity of learning.

Meanwhile, a passionate band of parents and former students known as the Save Our Seton group have taken their anger with the closure of the school to the top of the Brisbane archdiocese.

Members confronted Archbishop of Brisbane Mark Coleridge earlier this month at the Our Lady of Lourdes church in Sunnybank in front of shocked churchgoers, while others brandished signs outside.

Archbishop of Brisbane Mark Coleridge was confronted by angry parents over the closure of Seton College at church. Picture: NCA NewsWire/Kelly Barnes

One parent of a current Seton College student said she believed BCE had “completely underestimated” how much the school meant to the community.

“It was a huge relief when we got accepted, to know he will be in a place that accepts him for who he is,” Kylie Jensen said.

Despite reports Seton College may close earlier if enrolments do decline, Ms Jensen said she hoped her son, now in Year 9, would be able to complete his education at the school.

“I do have a sinking feeling we might not make it – but we plan to be there until the every end,” she said.

The BCE spokesman said they “shared the disappointment” that Seton College would no longer operate beyond 2024.

“Seton has become popular as a school catering for children with disability. While that was to be embraced, it did result in a growing imbalance in the student population and increasing complexity of student needs at Seton,” he said.

“Given this changing nature of the school, BCE announced in May 2019 that Seton College would become a school exclusively for students with disability.

“Enrolments and future applications declined, leaving cohort sizes for possible Year 7 intakes that would not allow for proper pathways for students throughout their secondary schooling.

“With this in mind, BCE made the difficult decision to close the school at the end of the 2024 school year.”