Educational Leadership

The rapper denies his private Christian academy was a ‘dystopian institution’. But the bizarre allegations keep coming, writes Arwa Mahdawi

Petition includes allegations from girls who were as young as 13 at time of alleged assaults

A student at a prestigious Catholic boys' school was tormented and taunted by his alleged rapists and rugby teammates on social media, including while he was away from home in a foreign country.

I want to draw on my experience at Shore School in the 1990s to shed some light, if only a little, on the baffling and disturbing behaviour displayed by some of the boys there this week, writes David Taylor.

Shore School in North Sydney has been investigating a document coined the "Triwizard Shorenament" which sets out tasks for Year 12 boys to complete to earn points.

The document includes a series of challenges for students that range from a "sack whack" — hitting other people's testicles — to taking illicit drugs on the Harbour Bridge, getting arrested and drinking to excess.

Headmaster Timothy Petterson said his school "unequivocally condemns the activities detailed in the proposed scavenger hunt".

The anger at the sacking of the deputy headmaster at Melbourne's Trinity Grammar is less about the haircut and more about what it represents.

Elite schools breed entitlement, entrench inequality—and then pretend to be engines of social change.

Many of these students will carry unhealthy attitudes and values forward into universities, workplaces, relationships and family homes. They’ll harbour unconscious biases that may take decades to confront. I’m proof of that.

Is it bad that I am not surprised when I read the Triwizard Shornament challenge book? Is it even worse that I understand it?