Controversial principal quits amid wild revelations about boozy party, staff blow ups and million-dollar legal row

One of the country’s most controversial principals dobbed herself in to the education department after roasting her teachers for knocking back shots of Fireball whiskey at a staff party on school grounds. 

Tracey Brose last week informed parents and students at Tamborine Mountain State High she would not be returning to the school following an extended period of personal leave. 

The decision comes amid ongoing revelations about Ms Brose’s interactions with staff and the wider school community during her high-profile 22-year stewardship. 

Although Ms Brose led the school to great academic heights throughout her reign, she has been at the centre of a string of lengthy scandals over the past decade. 

She first made national headlines in 2016 after she sued a group of her students’ parents for defamation after being labelled  an ‘evil, nasty, horrible woman’ on social media. 

The award-winning educator had initially sought $1.2million in damages but was ultimately awarded just $6000 from parents Donna and Miguel Baluskas – and later claimed her action had never been financially motivated. 

‘I don’t need money, I don’t need damages, I need her (the judge) to say this is not okay and needs to stop,’ she said following the 2020 decision. 

Despite finding in Ms Brose’s favour, the judge overseeing the case criticised the career educator for offering ‘contrived’ evidence and compiling ‘a calculated assessment of the assets’ of her critics ahead of the action.

Mrs Brose spent more than $600,000 fighting the lengthy defamation battle, which drove the Balukas’ into bankruptcy and cost them their house. 

The extraordinary four-year row began when eight parents from Tamborine Mountain, the only state high school in the small Gold Coast hinterland community of just 7000, wrote defamatory comments on a Change.org petition regarding Mrs Brose.

At the peak of the legal tussle, Mr Balukas, whose son was expelled from the school for making a comment on a school bus, smashed up the principal’s home, with Ms Brose’s husband allegedly forced to pull a knife on him in defense.

While Ms Brose eventually returned to work at the school, she was forced to take leave again early last year after her husband – a fellow teacher – suffered a serious injury before announcing her resignation this month. 

Her leave coincided with a separate and unrelated incident in which she apologised for blasting her school’s teachers for drinking on school premises during a daytime Christmas party after the academic year wrapped in 2023. 

According to emails obtained by Brisbane’s Courier-Mail newspaper, she apologised to her staff for her ‘unprofessional, irrational and unacceptable’ response, conceding she had ‘ruined [the] Christmas lunch and celebrations’. 

Ms Brose told her teachers in the email that she had reacted angrily because she had been worried they might face disciplinary action over the party – and she couldn’t bear the thought of her ‘beloved staff’ getting in trouble for breaching school rules. 

She went on to reference her own suspension almost a decade ago and, while the reasons behind it have never been made public, she acknowledged the experience was almost enough to make her quit the profession. 

‘I was triggered by the thought of any of my staff facing suspension,’ she explained in her email flowing the Christmas party blow up.

‘I barely survived suspension, most people never return to teaching.

‘It (her reaction) was an emotionally reactive fear situation. Not for me – I’ll take any bullets – but for my beloved staff. You are my family, the people I care about and work with every day.

‘I have the ability to see through space and time to see how one little thing could have effects well into the future (that) no-one can foresee and that’s where my brain went and there was no coming back and no rational responses once there.

‘It was sheer fear, I needed to fix and protect you and was overwhelmed with anger and emotion. I was angry at me but directed (it) at staff sadly in many cases.’ 

Ms Brose blamed her own ‘poor leadership and management’ for the contentious reaction and added she understood previous Christmas celebrations ‘may have involved the private and discreet consumption of alcohol’.

However, she said she did not know that drinking Fireball shots had become a ‘tradition’ and had been worried they were being consumed ‘early in the day’ and offered in the school’s administration block.

‘(I’m feeling) humiliated, embarrassed and an immense and overwhelming sense of loss of respect, failure as a leader and very little dignity, and sorrow for the hurt I have caused the very people I was fearful and panicked I needed to protect,’ she wrote in the email obtained by the Courier-Mail. 

She added that she accepted ‘full responsibility’ for the tense falling out and referred the incident to the state’s education department, along with a suggestion that she face disciplinary action over the tirade. 

Documents obtained by the Brisbane newspaper suggested that Ms Brose was also being investigated after a formal complaint was received about an unspecified incident. 

It is not known if the matter related to the Christmas party or another issue.

Ms Brose could not be contacted for comment. 

The Queensland Department of Education told Daily Mail Australia it was unable to discuss the matters.

‘The Department holds all principals, teachers and school staff to the highest possible standards,’ a spokesperson said. 

‘We are unable to provide further information for confidentiality reasons.’