College cancels ‘Wife Beater Wednesday’

the theme from Stuff, they spun into action.

A school spokesperson said the boys had ‘‘shown bad judgment, and it wasn’t with our approval’’.

‘‘It has been shut down. The students have been spoken to, and they know how serious it is.’’

Staff were initially told the day was a ‘‘Wacky Wednesday’’ dress up theme – ‘‘the change was not authorised by the school’’, they said.

A ‘‘firm hand’’ was being taken, and the school was ‘‘surprised’’ and ‘‘disappointed’’ by the boys’ choice of theme.

‘‘This is a very teachable moment for us. We are making sure the boys are learning from that very big mistake. There’s always room to teach and learn from these mistakes, and obviously that is our job to continue to do that.

‘‘An apology will be going out on the same page it was posted on.’’

They said communications of the dress up theme had been shared on the students’ internal closed digital group.

A father of a year 13 student at the school, who did not want to be named, said he was shocked when his son told him of the ‘‘Wife Beater Wednesday’’ theme.

He said his son was joking about it saying it was ‘‘just a singlet’’.

‘‘I don’t think it’s all that appropriate.’’

‘‘I’m not a politically correct person but I don’t think it’s a joke. We have such a huge problem with domestic violence in this country. It sends the wrong signal.’’

He said he was concerned for his two daughters’ future ‘‘where they’re up against a man who comes through this schooling system, and we’ve made light of [domestic abuse]’’.

‘‘Let’s get into the modern world guys and stop that behaviour.’’