Trinity Grammar: Teacher fired over student haircut reinstated after review

A Melbourne deputy principal fired when he cut a student’s hair, has been given his job back after an independent review found his dismissal was not justified.

Rohan Brown was sacked in March after video emerged of him giving a boy a haircut ahead of his school photo at Trinity Grammar, located in the Melbourne suburb of Kew.

But students refused to let the much-loved teacher go quietly, staging protests at the school to “Bring back Brownie.”

The independent review, carried out by Raymond Finkelstein AO QC and Renne Enbom, found that while Mr Brown breached the school’s Code of Conduct, the “school council, who dismissed Mr Brown following a Code of Conduct hearing, did not actually have the requisite authority to do so.”

The school council’s chairman Robert Utter apologised for the decision to dismiss Mr Brown.

““The decision itself was not taken lightly at the time. It was based on an understanding of matters, which are now known to be different,” he said in a statement.

“That said, we accept full responsibility for making a decision that has ultimately been determined as wrong by eminent, qualified and independent examiners.”

Mr Brown said he was “relived and excited” at the news.

“I want to go back,” he told the Herald Sun.

“I am proud of the Trinity community, it has been fabulous.

“It has been hard on the boys, the parents and the staff. They have been torn apart.”

The review has made five recommendations, including that if Mr Brown returns to the school, he should be advised he should never in any circumstances cut a student’s hair.

It also said if the school’s policy should be broken, it should be enforced by sending a student home and that Mr Brown’s duties should not be revised until the end of his five-year term as Deputy Headmaster and Head of Senior School.