Elite Melbourne boys school hit by dozens of complaints from female staff

One of Melbourne’s most exclusive private schools has been hit by a bombshell report contained inside a Dropbox file about teacher behaviour.

One of Melbourne’s most elite private schools is under fire after dozens of complaints by female staff were allegedly shared in a Dropbox file.

St Kevin’s College at Toorak is at the centre of claims of impropriety after as many as 60 complaints were compiled in a dossier seen by principal Deborah Barker.

One of the complaints alleges a former staff member was “incredibly ‘handsy’ to the point of sexual assault”, according to a teacher who spoke to The Age.

The dossier was contributed to by staff who felt they were working in an unsafe environment – one that has been well documented after a series of incidents over several years.

The first major incident took place on a tram in 2019 where students in St Kevin’s uniforms were filmed chanting sexist lyrics in front of shocked onlookers.

The year 10 and 11 students were caught chanting the following lyrics on the way to an inter-school sports carnival:

I wish that all the ladies

Were holes in the road

And if I were a dump truck

I’d fill them with my load

Three students were suspended for their role in the incident.

St Kevin's students were filmed on a Melbourne tram chanting sexist lyrics in 2019. Vision: ABC

Then-headmaster Stephen Russell said at the time that he was beyond angry.

“To say I am upset, frustrated and angry would be fair,” Mr Russell wrote in a letter to parents. “As a husband, a father of daughters, a brother of four sisters, a son and, I hope, a good friend and a decent colleague to many women, I know this behaviour cannot go unchallenged.”

But the behaviour continued.

A second video was sent to news.com.au days later showing year 12 students singing the same song during a pub crawl.

Former student Luke Kiernan told news.com.au the second video “demonstrates how unseriously these students take allegations of sexism”.

“It proves it’s not a minority of extreme sexists, it’s an ingrained culture that is adhered to by the majority of the school population,” he said.

“It’s a dogmatic tribalism that’s pedalled by the school. It’s demanded that a key part of your identity is that you are part of the elite class.

“Anyone that goes against that culture is disowned and torched. The people that participate (in sexist chanting) are the most privileged and elite men in Melbourne.

“They know they can probably get away with it. The privilege gives them the confidence to do whatever they want to do.”

Former student James Robinson broke into school grounds to set a St Kevin’s blazer on fire. Picture: Instagram

In 2020, Ms Barker said she was going to put an end to the boys’ club culture that thrived on misogyny and treated women as objects.

A Four Corners investigation followed which revealed Mr Russell gave a character reference to a child sex offender after he had been convicted of grooming a year 9 boy.

Celebrated Australian-Filipino photographer James Robinson, an ex-St Kevin’s student, also broke into the school grounds and burned his blazer by way of protest.

He told news.com.au a story about an incident in class when he was a student that shocked him.

He said a teacher asked the class: “Who in this class wants to know what it’s like to sleep with a woman who’s slept with multiple men before?”

Several of his classmates raised their hands, he remembers. They were then invited to walk up to the front of their class, where they were given a cookie.

“They’re told to chew up the cookie but not to swallow. They then get given a glass,” Mr Robinson said.

The students were then asked to spit their masticated mouthfuls of cookie, soft with saliva, into the glass, which the teacher held up in front of the class.

“This is what it’s like to sleep with a woman who has been with multiple partners,” the teacher said.

“You don’t know what germs she’s carrying. You don’t know what germs from other men she’s carrying.

“And so think about that the next time you think about sleeping with a woman.”

St Kevin’s Principal Deborah Barker has promised to turn around the boys’ club culture at St Kevin’s College. Picture: Ian Currie

Posting a series of photos on Instagram – one of which pictures he and his partner kissing – Mr Robinson shared his memories of what he called a toxic, sexist, homophobic and transphobic culture at the school.

“St Kevin’s is a bubble where privileged young men can rehearse oppression without consequence, before graduating with flying colours into public,” he wrote.

“A place where ‘locker room talk’ exists openly in hallways and classrooms.”

Mr Robinson said that given the culture he experienced at St Kevin’s, he wasn’t surprised by what he called the misogynistic and entitled attitudes among some of its students.

The New York-based photographer remembers being forcibly “outed” by an older student, bullied for his sexuality and left unsupported by teachers. Aged 15 at the time, the event left him suicidal.

“When you have teachers who are teaching you things in religion class around being gay, it makes you feel like there’s an entire system of school and staff who don’t agree with you,” he told news.com.au.

“So even when I had this awful experience of being outed, of course I’m not going to turn to the teachers who are teaching and saying homophobic things.”

– With Jessica Wang