St Bernard’s College in hot water again over student’s lewd remarks on school social media page
An elite Melbourne school is in the spotlight again for the wrong reasons, after lewd sexist and racists posts emerged online.
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The crisis at a Christian Brothers school in Melbourne’s north west has deepened, with shock new claims about how students treat women at nearby Catholic girls’ schools.
Students at St Bernard’s College in Essendon made a string of lewd, sexist remarks on a school Facebook page, according to screen shots seen by the Herald Sun.
It comes after the school was at the centre of a racism and teacher safety scandal, with a leaked union document revealing swastikas were drawn on furniture and female teachers were threatened they would be followed home.
Principal Michael Davies has also come under fire for writing a glowing tribute in 2016 about accused paedophile Chris Howell, a former teacher who took his own life in the lead-up to a court appearance.
Mr Davies recently apologised for writing the note.
Now a former student of a local Catholic girls’ school has slammed the college’s leadership for its failure to tackle the behaviour of students towards women.
“The school hasn’t done anything to tackle what these boys are like,” the young woman said.
“I haven’t really met a lot of kids from St Bernard’s who can speak to women respectfully.”
The young woman’s complaints centre around a Facebook page which was labelled as Bernard’s Year 12, 2020.
The student said the school failed to stamp out the sexism culture among male students because she was bombarded with anonymous, threatening messages from St Bernard’s students last year — after graduating.
“They said I had been passed around, and that I should make an OnlyFans,” she said.
“One of the boys said: ‘she’s already got the worst of life — she’s a woman. Don’t listen to her’”.
The Herald Sun has obtained dozens of images of St Bernard’s students making disparaging comments about the former female pupil.
One comment read: “She got passed around ap (sic) like a panettone at an Italian feast”.
The post was made in reference to a large Italian fruit cake, typically shared at Christmas.
Another said: “She should go make an OnlyFans like everyone else and shut up”.
“Who tf is paying for that,” a male student replied.
St Bernard’s students who expressed support for the female student were branded a “simp” by their classmates.
Several students were suspended over the social media storm, but the former student said the school failed to address the sexist remarks and did not address the sexist comments with the entire student cohort to stamp out the boys’ toxic behaviour.
“The boys were so wrapped (sic) that they just got days off school or didn’t have to login online. They didn’t care at all. It didn’t feel like the school emphasised to them the seriousness of this cyber bullying,” the former female student said.
But Mr Davies told the Herald Sun the school launched an internal investigation into the alleged harassment of the female student and encouraged her to report the incident to police.
“Three SBC (St Bernard’s College) students were found to have acted in a completely unacceptable manner and were immediately suspended and left the school permanently at the end of 2020,” Mr Davies said.
It is understood that behavioural experts, including renowned child psychologist Dr Michael Carr-Gregg, addressed students across several year levels.
“St Bernard’s College has made it clear that it will not allow unacceptable behaviour and there is no place for students at the school who act in that manner,” Mr Davies said.
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