‘Hurt and humiliated’: Embattled Gold Coast principal denies calling student a slut

An embattled Gold Coast school principal who is suing school parents for more than $1 million has denied calling a student a ‘slut’ as she told of the ‘humiliation and hurt’ she has suffered from their alleged slander.

AN embattled Gold Coast school principal who is suing school parents for more than $1 million has denied calling a student a ‘slut’ as she told of the ‘humiliation and hurt’ she has suffered from their alleged slander.

Tamborine Mountain State High School principal Tracey Brose has launched landmark defamation action against four parents after she was allegedly called ‘evil’ and a ‘bully’ on Facebook and on a Change.org petition.

Ms Brose has been principal of the school since 2001 but was suspended in 2016 before being reinstated.

Tamborine Mountain State High principal Tracey Brose leaves Southport Court after the first day of her defamation case. Picture: Adam Head

On the second day of a Southport District Court trial, she told of feeling ‘threatened’, ‘scared’, ‘devastated’ and ‘highly offended’ by the allegedly defamatory material.

Her barrister, Holly Blattman, asked Ms Brose about disciplinary action she had taken against students including the son of two of the parents she is suing.

Ms Brose told the court she excluded the student from the school after he allegedly told a five-year-old boy on the school bus to show him his penis.

She said the parents, Donna and Miguel Baluskas, accused her of ‘overreacting’ and that the issue ‘wasn’t serious’.

The court heard Ms Brose also suspended a female student who was involved in a fist fight in class.

Donna Baluskas and Laura Lawson who are involved in a legal dispute with Tamborine Mountain State High School principal Tracey Brose. Picture: Jason O'Brien

Ms Brose said she counselled the student about ‘contraceptives, STDs and healthy relationships’ but denied claims she had called the girl a ‘slut’.

“”The term ‘sluts’ was one of the terms the students called each other, but it certainly wasn’t my words,” she told the court.

Ms Brose said the girl later emailed her and thanked her for suspending her, saying it was ‘the best thing that could have happened to her’.

Judge Catherine Muir refused to allow Ms Brose to be questioned over an event for which the court heard Mr Baluskas was facing criminal proceedings.

On the opening day of the trial on Monday, Ms Brose told how she had ‘sobbed uncontrollably’, binged on chocolates and considered suicide after learning she was being attacked by ‘keyboard warriors’.

She has settled her claim against two other parents while another person originally named in the court action has since declared bankruptcy.

Only four parents — the Baluskases, Laura Lawson and Charmaine Proudlock — are fighting the claim.

Originally published as ‘Hurt and humiliated’: Embattled Gold Coast principal denies calling student a slut