Trinity Grammar students plan strike in push to return deputy head
ANGRY Trinity Grammar students have chanted “we want Brownie back” as they protest the sacking of former deputy head Rohan Brown. Education Minister James Merlino said the sacking “seems a pretty harsh penalty”.
Education
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HUNDREDS of Trinity Grammar students have roared “we want Brownie” as they protest the sacking of their former deputy principal Rohan Brown.
Students gathered on a field at both recess and lunch time demanding Mr Brown be reinstated.
They have worn brown wrist bands in protest while senior students have dressed in casual clothes as classes returned today.
Hundreds of Trinity Grammar students pleading for the “Dumbledore of Trinity†to be reinstated. @theheraldsun pic.twitter.com/hcsOYVnray
— Genevieve Alison (@GenevieveAlison) March 13, 2018
Students are also calling for the school council chairman to be sacked.
Mr Brown lost his job last Thursday after he snipped a boy’s hair in front of other students before a school photoshoot at the beginning of term.
School rules stipulate hair must be above the collar.
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Josh Lanzon was among many senior school students who wore “smart casual” clothes in place of the Trinity uniform in “quiet protest” of Mr Brown’s dismissal.
“Rohan Brown was the Dumbledore of Trinity,” Mr Lanzon said.
“He was honestly the most courageous person ... he’s been wrong done by,” he said.
The school captain and vice captains posted online last night that they wanted to send a message that “we are utterly hurt, angry and disappointed” with his sacking.
Education Minister James Merlino weighed in today saying: “From what I’ve read and what I’ve seen, it seems a pretty harsh penalty but I’ll leave it to the Trinity school community”.
The government will not intervene in the private school stoush but Mr Merlino said he supports “student voice”.
“We encourage students to have an active voice in their school community,” he said.
“I would see no problem in students expressing their opinion (if it were a public school).”
Opposition education spokesman Tim Smith said he hoped Mr Brown would be reinstated.
The Kew MP said Trinity was an important institution in his local area and his office had been inundated with parents and old boys on the hair cutting incident.
Mr Smith said the sacked teacher was old school and could be an “acquired taste” but he “called it how he saw it.”
“I don’t condone the random haircutting of students.”
But he said given Mr Brown’s 30 years service to the school it was a ‘minor infraction’ and he should be reinstated.
Three-time AFL premiership champ and Trinity alumni Luke Power has also voiced his concerns.
“It is not a small thing when students in their final year of school, with so much on the line, can stand up in front of their Headmaster and hundreds of other people, and state that they have lost the trust and respect of the people that are empowered to guide them,” he said.
Trinity Grammar Old Boy president Tim Sharp has called on the current headmaster to be removed and the school council to be replaced effective immediately.
“We didn’t want to end up in the situation ... we knew it would happen but we didn’t want it to happen,” Mr Sharp said.
“The school was heading in such a poor direction we needed to resort to this.”
Speaking at the school’s front gates this morning, Mr Sharp said Thursday’s dismissal of Rohan Brown marked the 152nd staff member who has left the school during the headmaster’s four year tenure.
A town hall style meeting will be held in Hawthorn this evening which the school board and headmaster have been formally invited to, he said.
Mr Sharp praised the “respectful” manner is which students’ have protested Mr Brown’s dismissal.
“I think they have shown extraordinary leadership,” he said.
“They are mature beyond their years.”
Last night hundreds of concerned parents met at the Kew Library where it was revealed the school’s captain and vice-captain had contacted the year 10 boy whose hair Mr Brown cut, leading to his dismissal.
They asked him to return to the school “with their support”.
“We believe he has agreed to do so,” parent Lisa Williams told the meeting.
“This positive move shows the outstanding nature of the boys.”
OPINION: TRINITY GRAMMAR IN CHAOS OVER STUDENT’S HAIRCUT
The boy had said he didn’t want Mr Brown sacked but felt he could not return to the school due to bullying.
Ms Williams read a message of support from Mr Brown, who said he was sorry things had “blown up”.
“My heart goes out to your sons, to you and the whole Trinity community,” he said.
He asked the boys organising the protest to focus on their classes; and for the students to “look after the year 10 boy who is not at fault”.
Parent Joanna Slater said she and other parents were “united to get Rohan back”.
Nikki Barratt-Smith said parents were confident Mr Brown could be back at work by the end of the week.
“He is such a figurehead of the school,” she said.
CAPTAINS CALL FOR HEADMASTER TO RESIGN
Two decades of Trinity Grammar captains also added their voices to a growing chorus wanting the school’s council and headmaster to stand aside.
The former captains and vice captains say blame for the devastating consequences suffered by the boy whose haircut led to the sacking of the school’s deputy principal “lies squarely at the School Council’s feet”.
In an open three-page letter to headmaster Dr Michael Davies and council chairman Rod Lyle and 50 captains say they “no longer have confidence” in them or the council.
It comes after a tumultuous week when Mr Brown was sacked over snipping a boy’s hair for school photos, leading to student protests and a heated school meeting.
The captains expressed their “profound disappointment” in both the sacking of Mr Brown and the school’s changing direction under the executive leadership.
“This has seen a dramatic shift from Trinity’s position as a non-selective, non-elite school dedicated to holistic personal development, to an institution focused on “exceptional” performance defined by ATAR excellence, growth and profit,” the letter read.
“This in turn has alienated vast sections of the school community and, in the eyes of many Old Boys, Rohan stood in the face of that new direction as a champion of the school’s traditional values.
“In our view, it is patently clear that Rohan’s dismissal was not for any genuinely-held concern about community expectations, but rather because he was part of the ‘Old Guard’ that stood for the traditional values that the current executive rejects. This is profoundly sad, and it is apparent that under the current leadership, Trinity no longer promotes the qualities that we knew and loved.”
Above all else, the former school leaders said they were “deeply troubled” by the lack of concern shown by the school for the welfare of the boy whose hair was cut.
“It would have been abundantly clear to the Council that its favoured process — namely a blunt, public and undignified dismissal — would have immediate and devastating consequences for this poor young man,” the letter read.
“It is unacceptable that he should now find himself at the centre of a heated political issue that in all reality has nothing to do with him. He does not deserve it, and the responsibility for his predicament lies squarely at the School Council’s feet.”
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