The absolutely horrifying story behind fiery Melbourne private school protest

“This is before I even had the language to define my sexuality,” Mr Robinson told SBS News.

Mr Robinson said the fellow student eventually opened up to him and told him that he was gay â€" a conversation that “changed his world”.

“We had this really beautiful night where I finally felt safe,” he said. “I finally felt like I’d found someone.”

But the uplifting experience came crashing down when he attended school the next day because of an act that left him feeling suicidal.

“He and his friends were all pointing and laughing at me,” Mr Robinson told SBS News. “I then realised the whole thing had been an orchestrated prank.”

James Robinson, who attended St Kevin's College in Melbourne for 13 years and graduated in 2013. Source: Facebook

'It's absolutely horrifying': What spurred the protest

This is just one of many harrowing experiences the 2013 graduate had during his 13 years at the school in the city’s inner-east. It’s also one that led him to protest against what he says is a toxic culture at the 103-year-old college.

On Tuesday, Mr Robinson “broke in” to the school and set his old blazer alight, with images of the protest shared garnering huge attention on social media. 

He said “something snapped” when he saw that Collingwood Football Club player Jordan De Goey â€" also a former student of the school â€" had been charged with forcibly touching a 35-year-old woman at a bar in New York.

"This week, Jordy De Goey, who attended my same-sex Catholic high school, was arrested in New York for allegedly sexually assaulting a woman on a dancefloor. Unsurprising given my school's culture," Mr Robinson wrote on social media alongside photos of his protest.

"I broke into the school yesterday to protest. Something snapped in me this time. That patriarchal culture I saw inside the school gates burst out and made its way to New York. My new home for the last five years."

Mr Robinson set his St Kevin's College blazer alight in protest against what he says is a toxic culture at the school. Source: Supplied/James Robinson

The charges against De Goey have since been dropped, but he is due to face court in New York in early December on separate charges over the alleged assault and harassment of a 37-year-old man.

Mr Robinson, 26, who is a photographer and filmmaker, has been based in New York for the past five years but is currently in Melbourne.

He said when the news on De Goey emerged, it spurred him to bring the protest image, which he had been considering for a long time, to life.

“Seeing that toxic culture reach the shores of New York just absolutely devastated me,” he told SBS News.

“It’s a place where I’ve left that whole world of me behind.”

Mr Robinson said he witnessed, among other things, transphobia, homophobia, and misogyny while at St Kevin's College. Source: Supplied/James Robinson

When he was outed, he felt like he couldn’t confide in staff at the school because of classroom experiences.

“There was a religion class where we were asked to close our eyes and they would say things like, ‘there are three students in this classroom who are gay’.”

“I’m sure that comes from a well-intentioned angle, but the horror that would put in a queer student, and the horror that would put in a queer student, and the feeling of opening your eyes and looking around the classroom, of course there’s going to be someone there people will think ‘oh, that’s the gay one’,” he said. 

“It’s absolutely horrifying.

"I think those are the kind of approaches that can be changed by speaking to people who have those experiences, and those classes being run [by people] who actually are queer."

He said on another occasion in a sexual education class, three boys were asked to "spit chewed up cookies into a glass".

“They then held up the glass in front of everyone and said, ‘this is what it’s like to sleep with a woman who’s been with multiple men before’,” he said.

A 'bubble' to 'rehearse oppression without consequence'

Mr Robinson described the school as a "bubble where privileged young men can rehearse oppression without consequence", and a place where 'locker room talk' exists openly in hallways and classrooms.

He said he witnessed revenge porn acts against girls from "sister schools", the objectification of female teachers, and the bullying of a transgender teacher.

"I saw students who pulled a knife on a taxi driver ... I saw a system designed to let young boys think they can do anything, assault anyone, and get away with it," he said.

But his protest was ultimately an act of healing.

"This protest takes my healing full circle. I burn my blazer not in anger, but in hope for regeneration. I kiss my partner not in spite, but to bring love back to the only place that ever taught me shame,” he wrote on social media.

St Kevin's College on a 'journey of cultural renewal'

Deborah Barker is the college’s first female principal in its history. 

She took the reigns after almost a year of scandals, one of which culminated in an ABC Four Corners investigation on how the former headmaster, Stephen Russell, and dean of sport at the college, Luke Travers, wrote a character reference for external athletics coach Peter Kehoe - a former external athletics coach who was convicted of grooming a student at the school. 

She has agreed to meet with Mr Robinson, and in an email to parents, carers and students, said the college was on a “journey of cultural renewal, with a focus on inclusion and welcome for all.”

St Kevin's College principal Deborah Barker said she plans to meet with Mr Robinson. Source: Supplied/St Kevin's College

Mr Robinson said she had been “really lovely” in her correspondence and appeared open to what he has to say.

He plans to tell her that the school needs to stop focussing on managing its reputation, and pointed to how the Four Corners report was handled.

“All that the former principal, Stephen Russell, was focussed on was trying to play down the reputational damage on the school,” he said.

Though he thinks there are some programs and changes that can be made to help St Kevin's College students, he feels there’s only so much the school can do to change the attitudes of some.

"I just think that the way the school exists through the intertwining of business, religion, and profit should really go hand-in-hand with education," he said.

"I think that's a time when kids are developing ... and if you're so focussed and not as focussed on the wellbeing of those kids, you're going to be sending kids out into public who just exist in their little bubbles of privilege."

He said the changes that need to happen are also wider societal ones "that go all the way from school up to parliament". 

If you or someone you know is impacted by sexual assault, call 1800RESPECT on 1800 737 732 or visit 1800RESPECT.org.au. In an emergency, call 000.

LGBTIQ+ Australians seeking support with mental health can contact QLife on 1800 184 527 or visit qlife.org.au. ReachOut.com also has a list of support services. 

Intersex Australians seeking support can visit Intersex Peer Support Australia at isupport.org.au.

Readers seeking crisis support can contact Lifeline on 13 11 14, the Suicide Call Back Service on 1300 659 467 and Kids Helpline on 1800 55 1800 (for young people aged up to 25). More information and support with mental health is available at Beyond Blue.org.au and on 1300 22 4636. 

Embrace Multicultural Mental Health supports people from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds.

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