Cocaine, fires, bashings and sexual harassment: Melbourne’s worst school scandals in the southeast
From back-seat limousine booze-ups to bloodied beachside bashings and suspicious fires, here are some of the worst school scandals that rocked colleges and universities in Melbourne’s southeast in the past year.
Inner South
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From back seat limousine booze-ups to beachside bashings and kids playing with fire, southeast Melbourne’s primary, secondary and tertiary schools have no shortage of shock stories.
Here’s a list of some of the biggest scandals to hit classrooms over the past 12 months.
POOL PUNCH-ON
A school swimming carnival quickly went from splashes to fracas when two Year 12 students from Albert Park College started to throw punches at the Melbourne Sports and Aquatic Centre last month.
And despite a 17-year-old boy being rushed to hospital with serious injuries, a father of one of the students told the Leader that his son was “not a thug”.
The defensive dad said his boy had been provoked over a long period of time, and slammed the school after principal Steven Cook “refused” to meet with his son until a week after the poolside punch-up.
“His handling of this entire thing has been so inappropriate,” he said.
Police were reviewing footage and interviewing witnesses as part of the ongoing investigation but said it could take weeks before they knew if charges would be laid.
UNI HARASSMENT
Last month, a Sunday Herald Sun investigation revealed there were more than 250 reports of assault and sexual harassment made across universities in Melbourne since 2017.
Alarms of the sickening incidents were raised across the Melbourne, Monash, Swinburne, Deakin, Australian Catholic and Victoria university campuses, with a number of the shock cases reported to and investigated by police.
Further assaults were reported off-campus and at university-endorsed or affiliated events.
RMIT University was the only institution which refused to release numbers.
FIRE FRONT
The principal of a private Sandringham school was slammed by parents for protecting the school’s branding instead of supporting the Sandringham Primary School community after a building was razed by fire last month.
Families claimed the school was more concerned about its image than helping the primary school when three students became the subject of a police investigation in relation to the suspicious blaze.
Two 13-year-old boys — whose school name has not been revealed — were charged in early March on summons with criminal damage by fire.
Victoria Police confirmed that four other teenagers — a boy and three girls — were given a caution.
The school was advised it wouldn’t reopen until at least 2022.
MONASH MUGGINGS
International students at Monash University were targeted in a wave of terrifying robberies and bashings last year, with police receiving reports of 13 attacks over an 18-day period in June.
The cowardly thugs — believed to be of African appearance — set upon mostly Chinese victims aged between 19 and 55 when they were alone and snatched their mobile phones, backpacks, wallets and credit cards.
Most of the ambushes happened in the Clayton area near Monash University however police suspected the same attackers were linked to other hits in nearby suburbs including Burwood, Mulgrave, Mount Waverley, Glen Waverley, Box Hill and Oakleigh.
BACK SEAT BOOZE-UP
Five VCE students were suspended from the exclusive Woodleigh School after they loaded up on drugs and alcohol in a back seat booze-up as they were charioted by limousine to a Year 12 dinner in August.
Principal Jonathan Walter suspended the tipsy kids for a week after they got high on cocaine on the way to the Mornington Racecourse Peninsula Room just nine weeks out from their end of year exams.
A number of the partygoers dobbed themselves in after questions were raised about “behavioural concerns” around the night, and outsiders invited as partners were also involved.
BEACH BASHING
A teenage girl was charged over a brutal bashing on Mornington beach in October which left a young student bloodied and battered on the pavement.
Video of the attack was posted to social media and showed a young female assailant kicking, slapping and stamping on her victim.
The Mt Martha victim could be seen lying in her school uniform with the attacker’s foot on her head and tried to cover her face as the purple-haired offender laid at least six punches to her face.
The horrifying video quickly went viral and sparked comments from outraged anti-bullying advocates.
“People who have experienced abusive behaviour online may feel exposed and humiliated, and feel the experience is harder to escape than ‘traditional’ bullying,” Alannah & Madeline Foundation senior advisor for bullying Jessie Mitchell said.
“If you know the person who has been harmed, you may be able to reach out to them privately and offer sympathy and support … never join in or encourage bullying behaviour online.”
SCHOOL PICK-UP SKIRMISH
The standard afternoon school pick-up at Carrum Downs Secondary College turned into the scene of a school-front squabble earlier this month, leaving one man in hospital.
It’s unclear what the school-bell skirmish was about, however 3AW listeners alerted the program to police presence in the area about 3pm.
Victoria Police later confirmed a 26-year-old male was arrested over his alleged involvement in the fight which broke out between four people on McCormicks Rd.
A male teenager was taken to hospital with minor injuries.
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SCHOOLGROUND SCUFFLE
Blood was shed in a classroom in Frankston in August, with another school scuffle leaving parents feeling worried for their children’s safety.
A horrified McClelland College parent notified 3AW of a fight which broke out on school grounds and forced an evacuation out onto the oval.
The man said his son returned to the classroom to find smashed windows, broken tables and blood after two Year 8 students became involved in a fight which left one of them with a broken nose.