The headmaster of Sydney’s prestigious Cranbrook School, Nicholas Sampson, has resigned following revelations that he allegedly kept a teacher employed who he knew had sent multiple graphic emails to a former female student.
The teacher also reportedly boasted about looking up girls’ skirts in class and describing sexual fantasies about his students.
This deeply concerning information has sparked public outrage following a recent episode of Four Corners, which conducted an investigation into all-boys private college.
Following the airing of the Four Corners episode, an emergency meeting of the school council was held on Thursday to investigate Sampson’s response.
In an email to parents at the school the next day, Geoff Lovell, the president of the council described “an irrevocable breakdown of trust between the headmaster and the school council”.
“The school council communicated this to Mr Sampson and this morning received his resignation,” the email said.
Lovell also told parents that the allegations don’t involve past or present Cranbrook students, and that the school teacher involved was immediately placed on leave pending further assessment of the matter.
The investigation revealed the teacher’s former student who received the emails was from a Catholic girls’ school where he had previously taught. The emails were sent while the teacher was working at Cranbrook and were forwarded to NSW Police and seen by the Association of Independent Schools.
Sampson was informed about the teacher’s emails in June 2015 – after the principal of the girls’ school became aware – but kept the teacher in his position.
This was not the first time Sampson has been accused of mishandling complaints against a staff member. The Four Corners investigation details others that occurred in 2004 and 2016.
The council said it, “deeply regrets the distress to our students, our staff, our parents, our alumni and the broader Cranbrook family arising from the current circumstances”.
In a previous statement from the Cranbrook school council three days ago, it had said they’d “considered in detail the matters raised by the ABC and remain fully supportive of the headmaster and the school’s leadership”.
Four Corners has not named the teacher involved, but he was still working at Cranbrook this week and had been promoted.
Michele Marquet, head of junior school, will be acting head of school.