Tamborine Mountain State High principal Tracey Brose suing parent of former student for defamation

A mum being sued for defamation by a Gold Coast high school principal who expelled her son has broken down in court as she told how her boy tried to commit suicide in the tree he once climbed for fun.

A MUM being sued for defamation by a Gold Coast high school principal who expelled her son has broken down in court as she told how her boy tried to hang himself in the tree he once climbed for fun.

Donna Baluskas burst into tears in the dock as she gave emotional evidence in defence of a $1 million lawsuit launched against her and other parents by long-serving Tamborine Mountain State High principal Tracey Brose.

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Mrs Baluskas’s mother also broke down in the public gallery and hurriedly left the courtroom.

Mrs Brose is suing Mrs Baluskas, her husband Miguel and other parents she alleges defamed her in social media posts after she was mysteriously suspended from duty in February 2016.

She was reinstated four months later but the reasons for her suspension have never been publicly revealed.

Donna Baluskas who is involved in a legal dispute with Mt Tamborine State School Principal Tracey Brose. Picture: Jason O'Brien

A defamation trial in Southport District Court has been told the Baluskas’s 12-year-old son was expelled from the school in early 2014 after an incident on a bus where he allegedly asked a boy, 5, to show his penis.

Mrs Baluskas told the court her son was expelled after Mrs Brose labelled him a ‘sexual predator’ - a claim the principal has denied.

Mrs Baluskas said the incident was just ‘funny talk’ and her son had apologised but was summarily expelled by Mrs Brose.

“She made it quite clear that our son was not welcome at the school,” Mrs Baluskas said.

“She jumped to conclusions that our son was a sexual predator before she even did any investigation.”

Tamborine Mountain State High Principal Tracey Brose is suing a number of parents for defamation. Picture: Adam Head

Mrs Baluskas said police investigated and took no action and her son was sent to a private college, where he struggled to fit in.

She said her son then tried to commit suicide and nooses were found in his wardrobe and ‘in the tree he used to climb up’.

“My husband had to go and cut the branches off the tree so he couldn’t climb the tree,” a distraught Mrs Baluskas told the court.

She said her focus had been to clear her son’s name.

“I did everything I could in my power to help that little boy,” she told the court.

Originally published as Tamborine Mountain State High principal Tracey Brose suing parent of former student for defamation