St Kevin’s College students filmed in second video chanting sexist lyrics

Students at St Kevin’s College were labelled “disgraceful” for chanting sexist lyrics on a tram, but it gets much, much worse.

Luka Kiernan’s image on the High Academic Achiever’s Board at prestigious St Kevin’s College has been defaced with the words “traitor” and “snitch” after he spoke out against sexist chanting on a Melbourne tram this week.

The former student at the Toorak private school who still tutors current students says the defacing of his portrait — a portrait that Year 12 students walk past on the way to the main study centre every day — is “an admission of guilt”.

“I’ve received quite a lot of harassment,” he told news.com.au this morning. “When somebody breaks from the ruling class discipline like I’ve done, when somebody cuts against the grain, they are absolutely victimised because you’re not allowed to leave the ‘boys’ club’ and you’re certainly not allowed to criticise it publicly.”

News.com.au approached St Kevin’s College to find out whether the defaced portrait was still hanging but a school spokeswoman said: “We won’t be commenting on student matters.”

When asked if it was a student matter if the picture was hanging inside school grounds, the spokeswoman said: “We won’t be commenting on whether it’s there or not.”

Kiernan, 19, went to the media to reveal the deeply ingrained sexist, hypermasculine culture at St Kevin’s after students were filmed chanting disgusting lyrics at their top of their lungs on a packed Melbourne tram on Saturday.

St Kevin's College former student Luka Kiernan, who gave permission for the image to be published, had the word ‘traitor’ scribbled on his face.

The song’s lyrics included:

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

Several students from Year 10 and 11 have been suspended for their part in the incident and the school is in damage control.

But overnight a second video was sent to news.com.au showing Year 12 students singing the same song during a pub crawl on Monday night.

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.

“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.”

Headmaster Stephen Russell responded to the video with a strong message to parents and a public apology. He promised he “will not let this matter lie”.

But in a second letter to parents, sent to news.com.au, Mr Russell admits the problem is far worse than he first suspected.

St Kevin's is under fire after students chanted sexist lyrics on a tram. But it gets much worse.

“Sadly, we are aware that the use of misogynistic language such as in the chant on Saturday, is more widespread than we understood and this knowledge has intensified our determination to resolutely reshape our programs and to look to do so much more in this area,” Mr Russell wrote.

“The size of our challenge has been clearly illustrated to me by my knowledge that some recent graduates foolishly and recklessly thought it would be amusing when they were celebrating to use this horrible chant.”

Kiernan said he welcomes the action by the school, but it’s too little too late.

“Women have been making these complaints about this sort of behaviour for ages and those have not been responded to whatsoever,” he said.

“It’s only when there’s significant media attention and a former student — a student who is a man — comes out that these allegations are taken seriously.”

News.com.au spoke this morning with a young woman who graduated from St Kevin’s’ sister school.

The 19-year-old said she saw first hand the impact the macho culture was having.

“I’ve had experiences with hearing chants like that before and seeing behaviour that isn’t the best,” she said.

St Kevin's students were filmed chanting on a Melbourne tram on Saturday. Year 12 students were caught doing the same thing on Monday night.

“I’ve been to parties where I was harassed by people and it always kind of ends up being a St Kevin’s student.”

She said she was dating a St Kevin’s student for a while and after they broke up things turned ugly for her.

“At a party I saw him and he got all his friends to gang up on me,” she said.

“They would block me off from parts of the party. They all started touching my face and other parts and it wouldn’t stop until one of St Kevin’s boys intervened and then he was ridiculed for it.

“With that incident, it was a bunch of guys all ganging up on me. The guy who stopped it was called a ‘party pooper’. The boys said to him: ‘We’re just having some fun’.”

The young woman, who had a brother attend St Kevin’s as a primary school student before he was pulled out, said “you can see it happening with boys being built up that they’re the best.

“They’re told, ‘This is the best school for you, you’re the best of the best’. You can see it as early as primary school, this pack mentality starting to form.”

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