Peninsula Grammar caught up in legal battle with former teacher

A prestigious Victorian school is taking a sacked senior teacher to the Supreme Court — just weeks after his employment was terminated — over what it says are secret documents which include “confidential” information.

A private school is embroiled in a Supreme Court fight with a sacked teacher over documents it claims must be kept secret.

Peninsula Grammar has taken teacher Christopher Menage to court, seeking an injunction to prevent him from “doing anything whatsoever with the Confidential Information”.

The head of the boarding house — who currently has a claim before WorkCover for psychological injury — was terminated from his job on August 12, documents show.

The court heard a week earlier, Mr Menage was sent a show cause letter from principal Stuart Johnston demanding he deliver all documents and return a signed undertaking “or he could be prosecuted criminally”.

Lawyers acting for Mr Menage told the court it was “entirely unreasonable” to request a person with a “psychological injury sustained in the workplace to sign a legally binding document” under the threat of criminal prosecution and return it within a day.

The court heard Mr Menage’s issue was with signing the undertaking — not returning the documents — and he did not wish to sign them without taking legal advice.

Mr Menage has been on leave from work due to the injury claim.

It was not established during the injunction hearing last Thursday what the confidential materials were, and who they pertained to.

Justice Zammit ordered that any student names in the documents be redacted.

“It’s not even clear what the nature of the information is,” Judge Rita Zammit said.

However, she ruled in the event any documents did include student names, they would be redacted.

Outside the courtroom, principal Stuart Johnston claimed in a statement that there was “a significant breach of the privacy and confidentiality of student data”.

“When I first became aware of the breach, I authorised a thorough investigation,” he said.

Mr Johnston said it was “inappropriate to go into detail about what is in these highly confidential and extremely sensitive documents”.

Peninsula Grammar, through its lawyers, applied for a pseudonym order to prevent the publishing of its name over the matter, arguing it would cause “disquiet” among the school community.

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But Justice Zammit denied the application.

“I’m just not convinced reporting on this case would put anybody at risk,” she said.

Justice Zammit ordered Mr Menage deliver all copies of the confidential information, and any computers, phones, hard drives and online accounts be handed to an independent expert for examination by Monday.

A Supreme Court writ states that Peninsula Grammar is seeking damages, interest and costs, claiming it had “suffered loss and damage”.

The matter will return to the Supreme Court for a directions hearing on the Employment and Industrial list on November 21.

Mr Menage declined to comment.

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