29/06/2025
Ballarat Grammar’s junior campus in Wendouree is in absolute chaos – with insiders calling it “dangerously unsafe” and dishing up claims of full-blown violence.
Dozens of families have spoken to the ABC, the Herald Sun and the Courier, resulting in a string of news stories painting a grim picture of what’s going on behind the gates.
We’re talking kids being punched, slapped, shoved, bitten, kicked – the whole messy lot. It’s reportedly gotten so bad that classrooms have had to be evacuated more than once.
But it’s not just the physical stuff. Students are allegedly copping verbal abuse too – being called racist and sexist slurs on the regular.
According to those in the know, the joint’s spiralling, and the school’s doing bu**er all about it.
And this ain’t a bargain bin school either – day kids are forking out up to $26k a year, boarders up to $50k. For that kind of coin, you’d expect a bit of order – not a playground battleground.
One source didn’t hold back: “The kids don’t feel safe. It’s the same as the boarding house issues. The school knows about it but does nothing. It’s dangerously unsafe.”
Speaking of the boarding house – it’s got its own ugly rep.
More than a dozen families have allegedly flagged a toxic culture filled with grooming, violence, and physical punishments, some targeting kids as young as 12.
The stories are rough: seniors allegedly dishing out beatings, forcing other students to eat off the ground, strip naked, and even swim in Lake Wendouree in the dead of night.
Apparently a few were expelled earlier this year – but some reckon that’s just scratching the surface.
Now the Victorian Registration and Quality Authority is sniffing around and looking into the school's boarding licence. About bloody time.
The school’s response? Pretty much the stock-standard PR line: they won’t talk about “individual student matters” and reckon all allegations are “thoroughly investigated.”
But when your own website talks up “zero tolerance” and “shared responsibility,” while kids are getting smacked around and terrorised, those words start to ring a bit hollow, eh?
Plenty of folks in the community are asking the same thing: where the hell is the accountability?
