Sacking of beloved teacher sparks row at Melbourne private boys’ school

Trinity students plan to strike tomorrow, backed by a parents’ protest, to save a teacher who was sacked for giving a boy a haircut.

Rohan Brown from Trinity College.

The leaders of one of Melbourne’s most prestigious private boys’ schools face the chop after they removed a popular senior teacher for giving one of the students a haircut.

Trinity Grammar’s Old Boys Association has demanded that chairman Roderick Lyle resign for sacking deputy headmaster Rohan Brown last week. It also wants headmaster Michael ­Davies, who supported the sacking, to take on a “caretaker role” until a successor is found.

“When you lose the Old Boys, the students and the parents, what else do you have?” Old Trinity Grammarians Association president David Baumgartner said.

Much-loved Mr Brown, who has taught at Trinity for more than 30 years, was removed from his position last week for cutting a student’s overgrown hair six weeks earlier, despite the parents of the boy saying they did not want any action taken against the Trinity deputy headmaster.

Mr Brown’s sacking sparked a protest meeting by almost 800 angry ­students and parents last Friday.

Trinity students are planning to strike tomorrow, backed by a parents’ protest, in support of Mr Brown.

The boy at the centre of the row sent a message to Friday’s meeting and said he never wanted Mr Brown to be sacked.

“Mr Brown and I made up and it was all good ... A video was passed around and the council found out about it. The council made the decision and it has all fallen on me,” it read.

The incident has unearthed long-running tensions over the direction of the school under Mr Lyle and Mr Davies, with parents and alumni keen to preserve the school’s more liberal traditions of former years.

Mr Baumgartner said Mr Lyle’s promise of an independent review into Mr Brown’s sacking should not proceed if the current school chairman writes the terms of reference.

“Rod Lyle should step down ... there’s a real problem here with the process,” he said.

Mr Baumgartner has had a long-running feud with Trinity’s current top brass over the school’s direction and he op­poses plans to increase the school’s population from 1300 to nearly 2000 students.

“Trinity Grammar has never been a doctors’ and lawyers’ ­factory; we’re a ‘good men’ factory ... we need to go back to the school’s holistic tradition,” he said.

“Their focus is on growth; businessmen are running our school, but it’s not a business.”

It is believed Mr Brown’s position had been under a cloud for a while as he was considered a vestige of Trinity’s old guard, having taught there since 1987.

Murray Verso, Trinity Grammar chairman from 1995-2004, said Mr Lyle and Dr ­Davies must step aside because of the divisions they have created at the prestigious school, where parents pay $30,000 a year for their children to attend.

“Seeing the angry scenes at that meeting made me feel really sad,” he said.

Neither Mr Lyle nor Dr ­Davies responded yesterday to requests for comment.