It should have been the excursion of a lifetime, but for the St Catherine’s students who signed up for the school‘s March trip to Fiji, it quickly became an experience they’d rather forget.
According to The Age, the elite Melbourne school’s optional Year 10 camp saw the girls staying in inadequate “backpacker-style” dormitory accommodation where they were leered at by older men. One room also flooded during heavy rain, while several students were forced to eat their meals on the floor due to a lack of seating.
To add insult to injury, half of the group was also reportedly struck down by a “virulent strain of conjunctivitis”.
Oh, and there was a cyclone.
The calamitous nature of the camp didn’t stop once they were all safely back in Toorak though. Well, not for the school’s deputy principal anyway.
Rosmary Ward is suing the school over its handling of her complaints about the trip’s management, claiming that her concerns were answered with pressure to resign.
One week after presenting her complaint at a meeting on April 22, Ward alleges that she was informed the principal had lost confidence in her abilities and was asked to consider resigning. If she refused, she was reportedly told that things would “implode” around her. This was despite a positive performance review just weeks prior.
Ward’s lawyers are claiming the school have acted in breach of the Fair Work Act. She is seeking $250,000 in damages and other costs.
According to The Age, St Catherine’s has denied encouraging Ward to resign.
Top Comments
The SAME thing happened with Scotch College boys in Fiji last year ~ boys on a sport / cultural trip organised by "Destination Dreaming" which promised lots and delivered little ~ numerous cuts and infections, no medical support on the trip and transport without safety belts and barely seats!
Of course all conveniently covered up by Scotch despite protestations to the Deputy Head ...
Sitting and eating on the floor in Fiji is a common custom. Whenever I'm back there, we sit on the floor. It's a sign of respect. Contracting gastroenteritis would have been possible even if they were staying at a 5 star, as the food, water and climate is completely different to here. Conjunctivitis is highly contagious and was endemic in Fiji in March due to the February cyclone and lack of access to water/reduced hygiene as is to be expected after a natural disaster and the cyclone that hit in March was a category 1 as opposed to the category 5 that hit in February before they got there. There are endless, endless reviews on accommodation in Fiji that can be easily searched on google and it was probably the job of both the school and parents to search this up before they went. The cat calling was unacceptable (although it does happen there, but still unacceptable), and i hope they tried to contact some sort of security or law enforcement. If it was locals jeering at the girls, usually the Fiji police are pretty strict on the local perps as it negatively affects tourism which is really the backbone of the country.