Marist College Canberra

Marist College Canberra
Location
Canberra, Australian Capital Territory Australia
Information
Type	Private Catholic School
Motto	Servo Fidem I keep the Faith
Established	1968
Founder	St Marcellin Champagnat
School district	Woden Valley
Headmaster	Mr Richard Sidorko
Grades	4-12
Gender	Male
Enrolment	1600
Campus	15 hectares
Colour(s)	Blue and Light-Blue
Song	Great Man of God
Newspaper	Maristian
Yearbook	Blue and Blue Magazine
Affiliation	Marist Schools Australia
Website	maristc.act.edu.au

Marist College Canberra is a Roman Catholic independent school for boys, founded in 1968 by the Marist Brothers. The College is situated on 15 hectares and located in the Australian Capital Territory, Canberra. The College is a member of the Association of Marist Schools of Australia (AMSA) and the Associated Southern Colleges (ASC).

The origins of MCC are to be found at the Rocks in Sydney. There, in 1875, only three years after the foundation of the first MCC school in Australia, the Brothers began a Select School or High School with Brother Augustine McDonald as its first principal.

In 1887 the secondary school transferred to the eastern side of St Mary's Cathedral, since this was a more central location and provided more space. By 1910 however, the school premises were run down and this fact and other difficulties led the Marist Brothers to construct new buildings on the heights of Darlinghurst, and "The High School" as it was commonly known, transferred there. Both at the Cathedral and at Darlinghurst. By the 1960s, demographics threatened the future of the school at Darlinghurst, while at the same time Canberra was burgeoning had few Catholic schools. So the decision was taken to sell the property and to use the proceeds to transfer the school to Canberra.

Marist College Canberra opened in 1968 with primary classes whilst construction of the secondary school building was still being completed. The first senior classes commenced in 1971. The first graduating class was in 1975.

Between 1976 and 1993 a teacher at Marist College, Brother Kosta Chute, sexually molested at least 39 students. The school investigated the first complaints concerning Chute's conduct internally, and permitted him to continue teaching. He was not removed from teaching duties until late 1993 when parents of one of his students complained to the ACT government. Chute was jailed in 2010 after being convicted on 19 counts of child sexual abuse. As of 2014 Marist College had paid almost $7 million in compensation to 38 former students who had been abused by Chute during his time at the school. In December 2015 the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse found that the Marist Brothers had been aware of the allegations against Chute since the 1960s, but continued to transfer him between schools. It also noted that another teacher at Marist College, Brother Gregory Sutton, had molested students at the school during the early 1980s leading to eight compensation payments, but found that there was no evidence that either the Marist Brothers or the school had received allegations concerning Sutton during this period.

...
Wikipedia