The principal of Somerville House, a Brisbane girls' school, will resign from her position. This announcement follows an incident where teachers uploaded personal comments about students to an unsecured internet server.
On Thursday, Somerville House issued letters to parents, stating that Dr. Sandra Hastie would be stepping down from her role at the end of Term 1, 2026, citing "family reasons." The letter, from chief executive officer Alan Swanson, did not specify these reasons. Dr. Hastie is set to move to New Zealand to become the executive principal for the Diocesan School for Girls in Auckland.
The school indicated it would commence recruiting for a new principal, with an interim principal to be appointed in the interim.
This development occurs after students previously discovered a document, referred to as a "dirt file," on a publicly accessible Microsoft Teams server. This document, dating back to 2021, contained comments from teachers regarding the physical appearance and personalities of students and parents.