Trinity Grammar debacle: Former judge Ray Finkelstein to head review

Troubled Trinity Grammar appoints a former judge to review the sacking of a deputy principal for cutting a student’s hair.

Troubled Trinity Grammar School in Melbourne has appointed high-profile former judge Ray Finkelstein QC and senior commercial lawyer Renee Enborn to oversee an independent review on its controversial decision to sack a deputy principal for cutting a student’s hair.

The school council, however, has rejected demands from the school’s former students’ association to step aside in the wake of the drama.

In a letter to parents today. Trinity council chairman Robert Utter said that Mr Finkelstein and Ms Enborn would commence the review immediately.

He said that the pair had agreed to the review on the basis that they had “the full co-operation of school staff and the school council”, with access to “whatever documentation they require” and “may seek the views of any group they think may assist, including the Parents’ Association and the Old Trinity Grammarians Association”.

“Trinity’s school council has committed to accepting the findings and recommendations of the independent review and to working through a process with all relevant parties thereafter,” Mr Utter, a longstanding council member who stepped into the chairman’s role this week after the resignation of Roderick Lyle and two other council members.

Former deputy principal Rohan Brown, who was dismissed earlier this month, is understood to want his job back and has engaged lawyer Josh Bornstein of Maurine Blackburn to act on his behalf.

The dismissal of the veteran teacher has sparked outrage at the elite school, which charges up to $32,000 a year in fees, prompting students to protest and threats of legal action.

Rohan Brown cutting a student’s hair. Still taken from supplied video.