Punishment ring scandal: Private school warned years ago about students’ cruelty

The family of a former student warned a prestigious Victorian private school years ago about a cruel culture of “strapping” that is at the centre of a scandal over a punishment ring involving senior boarders.

The Age revealed on Friday that at least 10 senior boarding students at Ballarat Grammar School had been reported to police over claims that they had used straps to “punish” children as young as year 7 level, with at least 12 victims thought to be involved.

Ballarat Grammar principal Adam Heath said at least 10 current senior students had a “perverse sense of justice”.Credit: Joe Armao

But the family of an ex-student warned the school in 2023 that their then 12-year-old son had been the victim of a so-called “strapping” culture among Grammar boarders.

The boy’s abuse at the hands of his older schoolmates came to light when the victim came home with a third-degree burn on his leg. The boy said a spoon had been heated in boiling water and pressed against his flesh.

The school acknowledged, as part of a detailed response, that the boy had been hurt, but contested aspects of the family’s claims and made it clear it did not believe the incident was related to a broader pattern of strapping.

A year 12 boy was interviewed by Ballarat police over the burning incident, but was allowed to continue his studies at the school.

Legal restrictions on reporting offences against children prevent the identification of the victim, his family or the alleged perpetrator.

But correspondence between lawyers for the family and the school – obtained by The Sunday Age – detail clear warnings that the victimisation of the young student was not isolated and was part of a broader culture among the older boys at Ballarat Grammar.

The family alleged their boy had been dragged out of bed at 3am and beaten by older students wearing balaclavas. On another occasion, he was pulled from his bed again late at night and forced to run around an oval in his underwear, drink sour milk and eat rotten eggs, they said.

Letters between the school’s lawyers and solicitors acting for the parents indicate that Grammar contested much of what the family claimed.

The school said the older boy had been provoked into the burning incident and that the hot spoon had been tapped, not held, against the victim’s leg.

Detailed questions were sent to Ballarat Grammar on Saturday, but it did not respond before deadline.

The school traces its history back to the 19th century, counts the state’s longest-serving premier Sir Henry Bolte among its alumni, and sets boarding and tuition fees for a year 12 student at more than $49,000.

According to the family, older boys kept what they referred to as “the list” of younger students to be targeted for unofficial punishments, enforcing a rule of “a bad name makes fair game”.

“What happened to our son is not an isolated event,” the father told The Age.

“Strapping takes many forms, it’s not just as being belted with a strap, it’s a culture of, ‘If you don’t do what I say, because you’re junior to me, you will suffer an outcome’.

“There will be physical recriminations.”

But letters between the school’s lawyers and solicitors acting for the parents show that while the school accepted the student had been hurt while in its care, it did not believe that what happened to the boy was part of a broader pattern of strapping.

“We do not believe that this incident is related to or could be defined as what you refer to as ‘strapping’,” the school’s lawyers wrote.

“The school has, on multiple occasions offered the support of the school’s wellbeing team to your client.

“However, these offers were not taken up by [the boy] or his parents.”

Grammar proposed a detailed plan to keep the boy at the school – away from the alleged perpetrator – and to resolve the dispute.

But, unhappy with the school’s response – which included a proposal to sign a non-disclosure agreement – the family took their son out of Ballarat Grammar.

Talking about the latest allegations of a punishment ring involving senior boarders, Ballarat Grammar principal Adam Heath said on Friday that at least 10 current senior students had developed a “perverse sense of justice”, believing they had the right to “administer consequences”, with a strap, on younger boarders.

No one has been punished over the latest allegations, with Heath saying that procedural fairness and natural justice had to be afforded to those accused of abusing their schoolmates.

A respected former principal of Adelaide’s exclusive Prince Alfred College, Brad Fenner, considered an expert in boys’ education, had been contracted by Ballarat Grammar to conduct a sweeping review.

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