St Patrick’s College students suspended for drinking in pub on school trip to UK, Europe

Students from St Patrick’s College have been busted — after accidentally outing themselves on social media — for getting on the beers during a school trip to Europe and the UK.

St Pat’s students on their trip. There is nothing to suggest the students included in this picture were those drinking in the pub. Pictures: Supplied

Underage students from a Catholic boys’ college have been suspended after getting on the beers on an overseas school trip and then posting about it on social media.

Despite a widely publicised ban on drinking, students from St Patrick’s College in Ballarat went to the pub and drank beer while on a trip playing football and visiting war graves.

The seven staff who accompanied the year 11 and 12 students on the trip to Ireland, France and the United Kingdom over the Easter school holidays included controversial principal Steven O’Connor.

When the school was alerted to the incident after the trip, the boys were interviewed and a number were suspended for a few days or given detentions.

The college is now reviewing the issue. The boys were taken to the pub by host families, not teachers.

Mr O’Connor paid for his own business class ticket and other teachers and students travelled economy.

St Pat’s students on their trip. There is nothing to suggest the students included in this picture were those drinking in the pub. Pictures: Supplied

The trip involved 50 boys playing matches against a number of other schoolboy teams and touring the Western Front where they visited the graves of some of the old collegians from the school.

Mr O’Connor said the school was “disappointed that some Year 11 and 12 students breached strict no-alcohol rules and consumed beer on an otherwise successful school trip to Ireland”.

“The College is satisfied that issue was dealt with in a reasonable and appropriate manner.’’

A number of sources inside the school said the college put pressure on staff and parents to ensure the issue wasn’t made public.

One said the incident was being “explained away as ‘boys will be boys’ which is a concern in the current climate of bad boy behaviour being ignored, endorsed or excused, especially in Ballarat”.

Some students posted about their trip to the pub on social media. There is nothing to suggest the students included in this picture were those drinking in the pub. Pictures: Supplied

“Students from the trip were taken into a separate assembly and told off but also warned about speaking about it,” one source said.

Staff also said they were warned about speaking out amid a “continued environment of oppression and professional threats” at the school.

Criticism of a “toxic workplace culture” continues at the alma mater of controversial Catholic figure George Pell under the leadership of Mr O’Connor.

Many of the 50 plus staff who left the school in 2022 were female, with inside sources claiming the anti-female culture and stagnant VCE results were to blame.

The school is yet to address a 2022 incident where it is alleged two female staff members were harassed by more than 100 boys.

The school has lost 100 enrolments over the past five years.