Top Brisbane school’s staff ‘shocked’ by senior appointment

The former principal of a Gold Coast college who sensationally quit amid allegations of creating an unsafe workplace has been appointed to a senior role at one of Queensland’s top schools.

Kim Cohen will start at St Aidan’s at Corinda on July 10.

The former principal of a Gold Coast college who sensationally quit amid allegations of creating an unsafe workplace has been appointed to a senior leadership role in one of Queensland’s top girls’ schools.

Kim Cohen, who resigned from Saint Stephen’s College, Upper Coomera, on February 28 this year, will become interim deputy principal at the elite St Aidan’s Anglican Girls’ School in Corinda from Monday, July 10.

St Aidan’s staff are said to be “shocked” by the appointment. Parents are yet to be formally notified.

Announcing the move in an internal memo to St Aidan’s staff, principal Toni Riordan said Mrs Cohen was “highly experienced” and had “a deep understanding of” SSA (Sisters of the Society of the Sacred Advent) schools.

This included St Margaret’s in Ascot, where Mrs Cohen was deputy principal from 2014-16.

In the memo, a copy of which was sent to The Courier-Mail, Ms Riordan said Mrs Cohen would help ensure the ELT (educational leadership team) had continued support for the start of term 3.

On February 21 this year, the board of St Stephen’s – where Mrs Cohen had been principal since 2020 – received a detailed letter from lawyers, engaged by staff, said to outline concerns about the school and Mrs Cohen’s alleged behaviour.

In the letter, lawyer Efthimia Voulcaris, of Devaneys, alleged that staff had told of “fear of reporting psychosocial hazards and safety concerns relating to themselves or others”.

“Current or former staff that I have spoken with raised with me that the college is not a psychologically safe workplace,” Ms Voulcaris said.

The causes of that fear and those safety concerns have been redacted from the letter.

Following Mrs Cohen’s resignation a week later, The Courier-Mail also revealed that St Stephen’s board had been accused of “gross ineptitude”.

Members of the school community questioned why the board did not act sooner – and why they had not been removed from office.

During Mrs Cohen’s three-year tenure as principal, more than 100 staff left and many took stress leave and sought counselling, The Courier-Mail understands.

“A very large number of people were extremely unhappy for so long,” one former staff member said.

“The job of the board of an independent school is to appoint the principal and manage that person’s performance, but it seems there was no effective oversight,” they said.

Geraldine Ebbrell, currently West Moreton Anglican College’s director of student experiences, will replace Mrs Cohen as permanent deputy on August 28.