Former St Kevin's counsellor withdraws bullying claim against school
A former counsellor at St Kevin's in Toorak who took the Catholic boys' college to court alleging she was demoted for trying to report child grooming by staff has confidentially settled her case.
Maree Keel took the high-fee college to Fair Work in February, alleging vice-principal Janet Canny had bullied her and had repeatedly sought to block her attempts to report boys’ complaints of grooming by staff.
St Kevin's College has settled a Fair Work case with its former head of counselling, Maree Keel.Credit:Erik Anderson
She alleged that the school was more concerned with protecting its reputation than protecting children from predators, and that it had acted in breach of the Fair Work Act when it sought to abolish her role as head of counselling.
But on Monday Ms Keel – who concluded her employment at St Kevin's in May – reached a confidential settlement with the school and dropped her case against its governing body, Edmund Rice Education Australia.
She issued a statement through her lawyers, Maurice Blackburn: "Ms Keel sends her best wishes to all students at St Kevin’s College, including those students that accessed the Counselling services during her four years at the College."
The withdrawal of the case caps a painful period for the school, four months after the ABC’s Four Corners revealed its mishandling of a child grooming conviction involving year 9 student Paris Street and former coach Peter Kehoe in 2015.
Multiple staff were dismissed and the school’s headmaster Stephen Russell was forced to resign in the wake of the revelations.
Ms Canny was also immediately stood down from her role as acting principal when Ms Keel made her complaint in February, having been moved into the role a day after Mr Russell's resignation.
She remained a St Kevin’s College employee and denied accusations of interfering in Ms Keel’s attempts to report child grooming.
John Crowley was appointed as acting principal in late February.
He had gained respect for the way he confronted the legacy of historical child sexual abuse at St Patrick’s College in Ballarat, where he was principal for five years.
After his appointment, Mr Crowley vowed to take the same approach at St Kevin's as he did at St Patrick's to confront failures of child safety.