“Remember to say hi to me when I’m your boss one day,” he wrote.
An online rant by a Melbourne private school boy has gone viral — prompting criticism from parents, public school students and even Opposition Leader Bill Shorten.
The expletive-filled Facebook post, by a student of Xavier College in the leafy suburb of Kew, called state students “povo” and “retarded”.
The post’s author writes that his scores will easily top those of state school students in the upcoming Year 12 English exam.
“You give me hope because I know there are so many more retards like you out there that I will easily beat,” he says, adding: “Remember to say hi to me when I’m your boss one day.”
“The amount of retarded people on this page make me so happy that my parents bothered to send me to a good, private school instead of a poverty-stricken sh****** in Pakenham,” the 18-year-old student adds.
“People often say that paying to send your kids to a private school is not worth it but when I read what you povo f***s post on this page I’m eternally grateful to my parents.”
But the post’s numerous spelling and grammatical errors led one state school student to take a red pen to the Xavier student’s comments.
The public school student highlighted the Facebook bully’s poor punctuation, spelling errors and use of offensive words before marking the post a D+.
“Please take time to proof read next time … have some decency too please. See me after class,” the cheeky student added.
Opposition Leader Bill Shorten, who himself went to the exclusive Catholic private school, said the comments were disappointing.
“The Jesuits who taught me taught us to be a man for others, they taught us about social justice, helping people, that’s what I believe,” he said.
Meanwhile, Xavier’s official Facebook page has been inundated with calls for the offending student to be denied graduation.
“Really, if it were mine or many others call he would be denied graduation and forced to repeat the year at a ‘povo’ school,” Jody Blue wrote.
“I do hope that Dr Chris Hayes imposes a fitting punishment for such poor choices that his students have made in respect of the Facebook rant, maybe being made ineligible to qualify for their year 12 exams…?” wrote Elkie Fairbrother.
“Maybe the naughty boys could write 200 lines of ‘I must learn not to be a pathetic, privileged imbecile who thinks he is better than everyone else’,” suggested Michael Placentino.
Others pointed out that Xavier tends to rank below selective state schools like Melbourne High School and MacRobertson’s High School — rendering the offensive post inaccurate.
Xavier College principal Dr Chris Hayes said the student behind the elitist post would face disciplinary action, although he did not clarify how far that action would extend.
“The derogatory language and sentiments within the post are highly offensive,” he said in a statement.
“Xavier College is treating this matter very seriously and is taking disciplinary action against those concerned. This inexcusable behaviour deeply hurts our whole school community.”
Fairfax Media reports that Catholic Education Melbourne said it was “outraged” at the comments.
“We teach both rich and poor students in our schools right across Victoria and are all outraged at offensive comments that attack people on the basis of status or material wealth,” Catholic Education Executive Director Stephen Elder said.
Top Comments
This issue is twelve months old now. I still felt the urge to contribute to the discussion, after talking about this with an acquaintance.
When I was in high school, we were admonished by our teachers to watch we did whenever we were outside of school, but in our uniforms. Whatever we did, would be a reflection of the school.
Today, thanks to the Internet, how would this play out in this era of blogging, social media and 24 hour a day connections?
On the surface, this post appears to be based on snobbery. However, not all private school students are like the one who wrote this post. I have heard of many who are very community minded, and do not look down on anyone who has not had the same advantages as they have.
What a shame an 'elite' private school education wasn't able to turn this kid into a decent human being.