Good Shepherd Lutheran College deletes critical posts, stops parents commenting

A Queensland school has gone to extraordinary lengths to shut down angry parents who have been accused of spreading “factually untrue” information.

The school was notified about the disturbing social media content by a concerned parent.

• Explained: What’s in the videos? Who’s involved?

Good Shepherd Lutheran College has sensationally stopped parents posting on their year-group Facebook pages and removed posts that criticise the school’s handling of a pornographic social media scandal involving Year 7 and 8 students.

The Courier-Mail can reveal the closed Facebook groups – in which parents comment on matters relating to their children’s education – were halted just after 8.30pm on Monday.

A page administrator message posted on each page said: “It is the College’s position that there is a temporary pause on releasing new posts to prevent spread of content that is factually untrue. Our College values the exchange of information and views between parents and will return to usual as soon as possible.”

Angry parents now claim their views are being “censored” as the school goes into “full damage control” over the fiasco which has sparked a police investigation and seen several children expelled.

This masthead broke news of the scandal on Sunday, after a parent revealed she had told the school about the existence of potentially illegal material on Snapchat and TikTok on February 27.

She again emailed the school – and its governing body, Lutheran Education Queensland – on March 17 with a Dropbox link of the offensive imagery, but the LEQ did not report the matter to the police until May 16.

One mother said on Tuesday morning that Good Shepherd’s action against the year-level Facebook pages made parents feel they were “being gagged and censored”.

A mother is blowing open the porn scandal at Good Shepherd Lutheran College, Noosaville. Picture: Patrick Woods.

“Parents have been venting about the school since Sunday and we have several parents who are also staff members,” she said.

“Interesting that the school claims no responsibility for these pages if a parent runs into an issue, but as soon as the focus is on the school, they use their admin powers to shut down the conversations – they are in full damage control.”

The Courier-Mail can also reveal a parent’s post on the GSLC uniform buy, swap and sell page was removed by administrators on Monday.

The post was scathing about the school’s response to the social media imagery, which depicted pedophilia, bestiality and other hard-core pornography on Snapchat as well as covert videos of teachers and students on TikTok.

“This is not just a scandal. It is a betrayal of trust, of responsibility, and most damningly, of the Christian mission the school claims to uphold: ‘To offer a Christian education in a caring environment’,” the parent said in the since-removed post that was also published in this newspaper.

“Lutheran Education Queensland must act. A full and independent investigation is warranted. This failure is not something that can be quietly managed away.

“Where was the care? Where was the moral compass?”

The parents also said it was “not enough to claim Christian identity while remaining silent when vulnerable children are being harmed”.

“For months, one parent raised the alarm. They emailed. They pleaded. They followed every proper channel in good faith,” they said.

“The response from the school was slow and defensive. In that time, students were exposed to explicit content, ridiculed and bullied by their peers, and abandoned by those charged with protecting them.”

Good Shepherd and Lutheran Education Queensland have been contacted for comment.

In a previous statement, LEQ acting executive director Nick Verreynne said: “As the matter is under police investigation, we are unable to comment further at this time.”

The school has not responded to repeated questions by The Courier-Mail since Friday morning.

On Friday evening, shortly after 6pm, principal Anthony Dyer sent a letter to parents saying the college ”deeply concerned about the sharing of the alleged material” and “the unauthorised manner in which it was obtained”.

“In the interests of transparency, I thought it important to share this news with you directly,” Mr Dyer wrote.

“There is also a possibility it may attract media attention, and I wanted you to hear it from me first.”

Email Kylie Lang

Originally published as Good Shepherd Lutheran College deletes critical posts, stops parents commenting