Wesley College: Former student’s parents appeal to Education MP for help

Desperate parents of a “critically ill” former Wesley College student, who allegedly suffered “sadistic” mistreatment by teachers, want the Education Minister to intervene in their case.

Wesley College, St Kilda Road Melbourne campus. Picture: Mark Stewart

Desperate parents of a former Wesley College student who is critically ill after allegedly suffering “sadistic” mistreatment by teachers want the Education Minister to intervene in their case.

The student’s parents say the Victorian Institute of Teaching has failed to act in more than two years despite repeated complaints involving serious allegations of misconduct against multiple teachers, and ongoing warnings about her condition.

A letter to Education Minister Ben Carroll from the girl’s parents alleges she “was allegedly psychologically assaulted and pushed into a suicidal state by a senior male teacher at Wesley College in Melbourne”.

When the girl spoke up, she was subjected to “calculated and or sadistic reprisal action which included retaliation that continued “even after teachers knew she had been hospitalised in a suicidal state,” the letter states.

These claims have been repeatedly denied by the school.

“The Victorian Institute of Teaching (VIT) has failed and or wilfully refused for two years to

undertake any investigation or commence even a preliminary assessment,” the parents wrote.

Since September 2021, they say they attempted to contact the VIT more than 60 times via email, phone calls and voicemails seeking to progress the complaint, and report new incidents of teacher misconduct against other teachers, but they mostly got no response at all.

After being urged to act, a preliminary investigation into one of the teachers was only confirmed by the VIT in November 2023 but the statewide regulator has yet to decide if it will proceed with a formal investigation.

“Our daughter is currently in hospital, losing her battle against a complex post-traumatic

condition that has taken hold of her in the aftermath of the multifaceted teacher conduct and what it set off in every part of her young life,” the girl’s parents wrote in the letter.

Their lawyer Jenny Draddy has also told the minister that she is “aware of a number of families that sought to notify the VIT and or other Victorian regulators of allegations, complaints and serious concerns about the conduct of senior Wesley teachers (and some of the same teachers) in 2022” and none of them have been acted on.

Wesley College has previously said the matter was “appropriately addressed by external agencies” at the time.

A Victorian Government spokesman said: “This is a matter for the VIT”.

A VIT spokeswoman said it “takes its role in providing for the safety and wellbeing of children seriously and takes action where appropriate”.