Bullying, child abuse, bashings and drugs: Melbourne’s worst school scandals in the east
From drug binges to brutal schoolyard bashings and sickening child sex assaults, here are some of the worst school scandals to rock schools in Melbourne’s east in the past year.
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Melbourne’s schools have endured a rough past few months when it comes to scandals, particularly at the ultra-exclusive schools in the city’s ritzy inner east.
Times have proven that even children born with a silver spoon in their mouth can find themselves on the wrong side of the tracks once they’ve hit their teenage years.
Here’s a list of some of the most shocking scandals to hit news feeds in the past year.
CHILD ABUSE
The fallout at St Kevin’s College from the ongoing child abuse saga over convicted paedophile athletics coach Peter Kehoe has continued to rock St Kevin’s College in Toorak. News broke in February that the school’s then principal Stephen Russell wrote a character reference in support of Kehoe after he was convicted in 2015 of grooming a student under the age of 16. Kehoe was sentenced to a community corrections order and added to the sex offenders register.
The school has come under fire for backing Kehoe as well as for its handling of the situation and the lack of support it showed Kehoe’s victim. Other teachers were also dismissed in the wake of the scandal or asked to step down from their roles, including advanced maths teacher Simon Parris, dean of sport Luke Travers, and deputy principal Janet Canny. Other prestigious Melbourne schools embroiled in allegations of historic child sex abuse in recent years include Geelong Grammar, Geelong College, Camberwell Grammar, Trinity Grammar and Ivanhoe Grammar.
UNDERAGE DRIVER
A sneaky trip through a McDonald’s drive-through by a 13-year-old St Catherine’s School student attracted a raft of criticism from the police and the wider community in February when a video of the incident was posted on social media. The video, which was later removed from TikTok, depicted a group of young girls, two wearing the St Cath’s uniform, smiling and laughing as one girl drove the car through the Prahran restaurant’s drive-through.
Police investigating the incident labelled it “idiotic” and the Toorak school later released a statement saying the incident happened outside of school hours and the girls were under the care of a guardian.
SCHOOL CAMP BRAWL
A Year 11 student from Catholic boys’ school Mazenod College in Mulgrave was “senselessly beaten” by a group of teenagers while at a school camp in January. A video of the attack surfaced in February, with the assault having taken place at a careers and industry camp held at City CYC in Collins St. A group of up to four students attacked the youngster, punching him to the ground and kicking him in a frenzied attack. The sickening onslaught left him bloodied and bruised.
Mazenod College principal Tony Coghlan released a statement following the incident that said three students were “no longer enrolled at the college” and a fourth had been suspended over the attack.
SEXIST CHANT
St Kevin’s College, never a stranger to controversy of late, copped public backlash in October when a video of some of its Year 10 and 11 students singing a sexist chant on a Melbourne tram went viral. The students were dressed in school uniform and were headed to an inter-school sports competition when the video was filmed. Other Melbourne schools as well as community groups and members of the public slammed the “misogynistic” and “sexist” chant.
Lyrics from the chant, which is thought to be directed at the young students from Sacre Coeur girls’ school in Glen Iris, included: “I wish that all the ladies, were holes in the road, and if I were a dump truck, I’d fill them with my load.”
Sacre Coeur cut ties with St Kevin’s as a result of the video.
MEAN GIRLS
The elite Camberwell Girls’ Grammar school found itself ensnared in a bullying scandal in October after a former student filed a statement of claim at the Supreme Court over allegations of harassment and ridicule she said she suffered at the hands of school bullies. The girl claimed she was harassed, ridiculed and severely traumatised by a clique of mean girls for more than five years, and her complaints to staff were ignored.
The now 19-year-old said her education suffered as a result, as had her ongoing career prospects. She is now suing the top private school for negligence and for having breached its duty of care. Her statement of claim noted between 2012 and 2017 she was teased at a swimming carnival for her body hair and called a “grizzly bear”.
She was also called “ugly” and had birthday party boycotted; she was subjected to rumours that she was a lesbian and suffered anorexia; she was mocked for sitting alone at lunch, and she was threatened on Snapchat that if she didn’t vote for one of her bullies for student council she would “get it”.
COKE FIENDS
Five VCE students from Woodleigh School were suspended for a week in August after it was revealed they’d consumed drugs and alcohol on the way to a school formal. The students from the top Mornington Peninsula school had chosen to arrive in style at the August 2 school event held at the Mornington Racecourse Peninsula Room, having hired a limousine for the occasion.
The cocktail of drugs they put up their noses or down their gobs included cocaine, and concerns were raised after observers raised issues with the students’ behaviour on the night. Outsiders invited to the event as partners were also suspected to have been involved in the antics.
SCHOOL OF HARD KNOCKS
The vice principal of Berwick College was forced to put a student in a headlock after the teenager was involved in a brawl with other students and staff. Footage emerged in August of the vice principal dragging the 16-year-old student and forcibly restraining him by putting him in a headlock.
The community was initially shocked by the footage, but students were quick to defend the vice principal’s actions. Three pupils who watched the fight said the footage only captured the end of the incident, and they said another teacher was put in a headlock and had his head bashed against the wall before the vice principal intervened. School parent Glen Adams said after the incident, the school had a problem with violent students and more discipline was needed.
He also called for troublesome students to be expelled: “Enough is enough,” Mr Adams said. “There is no discipline, this school has an issue with fighting every day of the week.”
BEACH BASH
A 15-year-old girl was charged following a brutal bashing at Mornington beach in early October. A group of teens watched and filmed the sickening onslaught near the Esplanade at Schnapper Point Drive about 6pm on October 8. The video shows the assailant kicking, slapping and stamping on her victim, a girl from Mt Martha.
The victim was seen in the video lying on the ground in her school uniform with her attacker’s foot on her head. She then tried to cover her face as the girl punched her at least six times to the head. The girl then followed her victim as she got up and tried to walk away, taunting her before grabbing her hair and pulling her to the ground again.
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The assailant later posted to social media that she was “sorry” for her actions and claimed her victim hit her first. She also said she had “anger issues”. “There’s people out there doing worse sh** than what I did. I’m sorry for what I did but I have anger issues and when I start something I lose control,” she wrote.
Police charged the girl with unlawful assault, intentionally cause injury and affray and she was expected to appear at a Children’s Court at a later date.