Melbourne’s Wesley College
is regarded as one of the city’s most progressive and open-minded
private schools with a strong commitment to free inquiry and open
debate. But it’s a reputation that’s being questioned after a student
was yesterday escorted out of a school assembly by an ex-cop when he
asked the principal a pointed question about an exam cheating scandal.

Yesterday,
Wesley’s principal, Dr Helen Drennen, addressed students for half an hour
about a controversy at the school which began two weeks ago with claims
that two teachers had tried to rort national literacy tests by using
the same words in a spelling bee as those about to appear on the
national test the next day. After the revelations, the teachers were suspended,
43 students were forced to re-sit the test and, two weeks later, Craig
Glass, the head of Wesley’s St Kilda Road campus, resigned, just as the two teachers were reinstated.

Throughout
Dr Drennen’s speech – which reportedly skipped over the detail and
focused on “life” metaphors – a year 11 boy had his hand up to ask a
question. But he was ignored until the school captain suggested to Dr
Drennen that she let him speak. Can you tell us what’s going on and
stop “tip-toeing” around the situation? the student asked, sparking an
lively response during which he was escorted out of the hall by a
retired cop known by the students as the “corrections officer.”

A
Wesley spokesman said the general view in the hall was that the boy’s
question was “inappropriate” and had already been answered, and he
wasn’t “escorted” out of the hall. He claims that the student officer, an
ex-policeman who deals with bullying, theft, and welfare issues, saw
that the boy was distressed by the assembly’s reaction and
“accompanied” him out of the hall.

Earlier this week, The Age
reported the students had been told not to ask why Mr Glass had quit
after staff spoke out against a “total lack of transparency” with which
Dr Drennen was able to dismiss staff. The school council president,
Warren Mitchell, followed up by writing to The Age to express
his confidence in the principal and argue she had shown her
“willingness to engage in free and open discussion” with staff “within
the constraints of confidentiality agreements.”