Teacher resigns over demeaning descriptions of kids at top private school

A teacher at an exclusive inner-Melbourne private school has left their job after a document was sent around the school community demeaning individual children as “bogan”, “ratty” and “anime eyes”.

St Michael’s Grammar principal Gerard Houlihan apologised on Thursday to parents, who pay up to $40,000 a year to send their children to the St Kilda school, after a cast list for the school musical was produced with annotations disparaging some of the performers.

Loading

The ABC reported last week that year 6 children were also described in the notes on the cast list for The Addams Family with racial descriptors like “eastern European” and “Asian”.

The document was uploaded to the school community intranet last week before being swiftly removed.

Houlihan told parents at the time that the staff member involved had been stood down from their duties over the “inappropriate and unacceptable remarks”.

The principal wrote again to parents on Thursday, saying that the incident was contrary to the school’s values and that the staff member, from the school’s performing arts department, had left their employment.

“The creation of the annotated cast list was unacceptable and contrary to our school’s values of dignity, respect, care and compassion,” Houlihan wrote to parents.

“The staff member involved has expressed genuine regret for the incident and acknowledged a significant error of professional judgment.

“The staff member has resigned from their employment and will not be returning to the school.”

Houlihan said the school’s year 6 students were being given a high level of support and that performances of The Addams Family had gone ahead as scheduled, and the show would continue to be performed.

The school has been contacted for comment.

The Morning Edition newsletter is our guide to the day’s most important and interesting stories, analysis and insights. Sign up here.

Most Viewed in National

Loading