Tamborine Mountain State High principal Tracey Brose forced to reveal suspension details by judge

The husband of a Gold Coast high school principal who has launched a $1 million defamation lawsuit against school parents has stormed out of a courtroom muttering ‘bulls--t’ as his wife’s case hit a possible snag.

Tamborine Mountain State High Principal Tracey Brose leaves the District Court at Southport with her husband. Picture: Adam Head

THE husband of a Gold Coast high school principal who has launched a landmark $1 million defamation lawsuit against school parents has stormed out of a courtroom calling ‘bulls--t’ as his wife lost a bid to keep the reason for her mystery suspension a secret.

Tracey Brose was suspended from the school in February 2016 before being reinstated four months later. Picture: Adam Head

Long-serving Tamborine Mountain State High principal Tracey Brose is suing five parents she claims defamed her in social media posts after she was suspended from the school in February 2016 before being reinstated four months later.

The reasons for the suspension has never been made public, a defamation trial in Southport District Court has been told.

Court documents allege Mrs Brose was falsely called an ‘evil, nasty woman’ and a ‘lying, manipulative bully’ in posts on Facebook and a Change.org petition which was launched by the school P & C president to have her reinstated.

Judge Catherine Muir last week ordered Mrs Brose to hand over three documents relating to her suspension to three of the parents she is suing.

The parents argued that Mrs Brose’s reputation was already damaged before the social media posts and that the documents would show she was a ‘bad principal’ who ‘behaved horrendously to those she felt were beneath her’.

Donna Baluskas, left, and Laura Lawson who are involved in a legal dispute with Mt Tamborine State School Principal Tracey Brose. Picture: Jason O'Brien

Mrs Brose’s lawyers are seeking an urgent appeal against Judge Muir’s ruling that the documents be disclosed to the parents, arguing they were irrelevant and their release could harm her reputation and case.

But their bid to keep the documents confidential until the appeal is heard in the Court of Appeal was unsuccessful, with Judge Muir today ruling against a stay application by Mrs Brose’s lawyers.

Judge Muir found Mrs Brose did not have a ‘good arguable case’ of winning the appeal and ruled that the documents should immediately be released to the parents and that trial should proceed.

As the judge neared the end of her ruling, Mrs Brose’s husband sitting in the public gallery loudly muttered ‘bullshit’ before storming out of the courtroom.

The trial was adjourned until tomorrow to give parties time to read the disputed documents.

The appeal could be heard as early as next week and Judge Muir said she would simply ignore evidence about the documents if the Court of Appeal finds against her decision.

Originally published as Tamborine Mountain State High principal Tracey Brose forced to reveal suspension details by judge