The Source: St Patrick’s College Ballarat principal Steven O’Connor in hot water over Facebook post
The principal of St Patrick’s College in Ballarat is again in hot water over his leadership style, this time over a Facebook comment left during the hiring of an executive assistant.
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The principal of St Patrick’s College in Ballarat is still under attack for his leadership style.
More than 50 staff left the Catholic boys’ school last year amid claims of a “misogynist and anti-women” climate under principal Steven O’Connor.
Eyebrows have been newly raised after the widespread sharing of a 2022 Facebook comment he posted on a job ad for his executive assistant.
O’Connor shared the post with a former female colleague accompanied by two lucky clover emojis, a red wine emoji and a love heart emoji.
The pair, who are good friends, used to work together at Santa Sabina College in Sydney.
Does the resurfacing of the post, from December last year, go to levels of ongoing enmity against O’Connor in the Ballarat school community?
As the source who brought the post to the attention of the Source put it: “This isn’t overly professional of a principal seeking to employ someone. Red love hearts and red wine? What is he thinking?”
Andy Kuppe, director of Victorian schools for Edmund Rice Education Australia, which runs St Pat’s, said O’Connor was a “very good principal and leader of St Patrick’s College”.
“The post from December last year is not inappropriate and reflects the good friendship between former colleagues,” Kuppe said.
Survivors of child sexual abuse are unhappy with the current state of the school’s healing and reflection garden, which recently sported spider webs, weeds and broken glass.
St Patrick’s College, the alma mater of George Pell, was a key location of inquiry for the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse.
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