St Andrew’s Cathedral School principal Dr John Collier hits back at parents
A PRINCIPAL of an elite Sydney private school that costs $30,000 a year has hit out at “reptilian” parents who treat teachers like their personal servants.
NSW
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A PRINCIPAL of an elite Sydney private school that costs $30,000 a year has lashed out at “reptilian” parents who treat teachers like their personal servants.
St Andrew’s Cathedral School principal Dr John Collier sent a scathing newsletter home to parents warning those who threatened violence against teachers would be banned from school grounds.
“Some parents, because they are paying fees, see the relationship with teachers as a master/servant relationship, such that they are entitled to make extravagant demands,” he wrote.
“I am having to interact with too many parents who have verbally abused, physically threatened or shouted at a staff member.
“I will instruct staff not to answer their phone calls or emails, and if necessary, I will assert my authority under the Inclosed Lands Act to ban them from entering the premises. Last year, I used this authority to terminate an enrolment where the relationship with the parents had entirely collapsed as they were in effect bullying staff on a daily basis.”
Dr Collier said the parents were displaying a “reptilian kind of defensive response” which was compromising the safety of his staff.
He compared the behaviour of some parents to that of a stampeding hippopotamus protecting it’s baby from a crocodile.
The principal warned a large number of parents would develop mental health issues if they did not learn how to “chill”.
“My advice to parents who work themselves into a state of high anxiety over single incidents, or even sets of incidents, is to take a step back and look at the long view.
“Parents who regularly place this stress upon themselves will be nervous wrecks by the end of Year 12.
“Moreover, they often inadvertently pass on this stress to their children, so worsening rather than improving the problem.”
In one example of the abuse, Dr Collier said one father had complained that 13 of his staff members were lying about his daughter “committing an offence”.
“It is very hard to make progress with this level of unreality,” Dr Collier said.
Another parent contacted the school saying her daughter’s life was over because she did poorly on a test.
Dr Collier said the “highly stressed and highly accusative” parents were harming their children by moving them from school to school.
“In such cases, there is clearly not going to be any school which will ever satisfy them or meet their extravagant expectations,” he said.
“Unfortunately some will follow the pattern of moving every year or two, unreasonably dissatisfied, searching for perfection they will never find, and actually, in uprooting their children, impeding their school performance.
Speaking to the ABC, Dr Collier blamed the abandonment of civilities on the behaviour of politicians and sportspeople who act aggressively in public settings.
“This is mainstreamed and normalised behaviour which I think is actually socially unacceptable,” he said.