Somerville House in damage control over ‘data breach’ leak of staff notes on students and parents
A Brisbane private school is scrambling to address how staff notes about students and parents - including their marital statuses - leaked.
A prestigious Brisbane girls’ school is investigating how notes recorded by staff about students’ appearances, behaviour, and parents’ personalities and marital statuses were leaked.
The document, which was written by Somerville House staff about Year 7 students in 2021, had a breakdown of each student’s primary school, learning disability considerations and academic results.
Medical diagnoses and treatments were also recorded, which also detailed whether the student was taking medication or was seeking a psychologist.
The school emailed the parents of the affected students at the school on Wednesday to inform them of the incident, saying it had been caused by a “data breach”.
One parent said they felt “astounded, betrayed, just devastated to think that these professional elite teachers are just gossiping behind children’s backs” and initially thought it was “some terrible school prank” until they were contacted by the school
Staff had also taken notes of each student’s behaviour and personality with some flagged as “rude” or had a “superior attitude towards teachers, bordering on rudeness”.
Others were described as “quirky”, “odd”, “disorganised” and their “peers think they have head lice”.
The document also contained notes about the marital status of parents and their personalities, with some referred to as “complainers” or “intense”. One parent was described as “in your face”.
Staff also noted the appearance of some children, including one described as having “messy hair”, as well as their popularity among classmates.
One parent, who wished to remain anonymous, said they were “astounded” by the comments written about their daughter and other children.
Their daughter’s cohort was preparing for their final Year 11 exams.
“Initially, I thought it was some terrible school prank, but then the details came to life, and then the school emailed us last night, confirming that this document did indeed exist, and it contained those comments. We were just astounded, betrayed, just devastated to think that these professional elite teachers are just gossiping behind children’s backs,” they said.
“I understand teachers need to do their job and talk to one another … I get that, and sometimes they’re difficult conversations to have, but they needed to be had with the parents, not with the whole teacher collegiate.
“We still don’t know how far this has been sent, who received it for what purposes. But the language used was so unprofessional, so deeply personal, irrelevant and inaccurate at times, that to rely on that and to form a conclusion about who that child is, is just utterly disgraceful.”
The parent said it was a “complete betrayal of trust”.
“You give this information to teachers to safeguard, to filter appropriately, to act in your interest, in your child’s interests. Not to then be used against you as some pre-judgment or predetermination cataloguing these children,” they said.
“Some of these comments, clearly, the teachers never came back to the parents to cross-check or double-check. These are just their little b****y formulations. Clearly, it’s just so unprofessional.
“To be complete mean girls, which is what the school is meant to not teach, I don’t see any action here being exhibited by the teaching staff. They’ve just done the exact opposite of what they’re constantly telling children about: Not to bully, not to gossip, not to talk behind people’s backs and not to prejudge, not to be dishonest. I mean, the school’s motto is ‘honour before honours’, and there’s been no honour in this.”
It is understood that students could access the document after stumbling across it when they were looking for files uploaded by a teacher in Microsoft Teams.
“We have been made aware of a data breach within our school IT system,” the email read.
“Some students have been able to access and read private historical notes because of the data breach. Those notes contained comments that fall short of our standards and our values.
“The school is investigating these notes and why the data breach occurred.
“The school will update you with any relevant information and will comply with its legal obligations to investigate and deal with the data breach.”
The parent said there had been no additional communication to parents since the email on Wednesday night.
“We understand human error can occur, and usually that’s easily addressed, and people move on and they solve it. We haven’t seen any of that,” they said.
The parent said they were “embarrassed” and “heartbroken” for the students who had their private medical information revealed to their entire cohort.
“We’re constantly told by schools, watch your footprint on social media, watch what you put in writing. Yet here we have the teaching faculty doing exactly what they’re telling us not to do,” they said.
“We are just telling our daughters to support one another, and this does not define them, and that they were young at the time, and just keep being who they are. None of us is perfect, but they should never have been betrayed like this. It’s a gross breach of trust.”
Somerville House has been contacted for comment.
Established in 1899, Somerville House is a prep to Year 12 school taking day and boarding students.
It is the only Brisbane Presbyterian and Methodist Schools Association pre-prep to Year 12 students facility, with prep fees starting at $23,300. In the senior school years, parents pay $30,144 per year.
Originally published as Somerville House in damage control over ‘data breach’ leak of staff notes on students and parents
