Elite high school under fire for paying private investigators to tail students

 sought-after high school has been accused of hiring private investigators to spy on students and their families to confirm they live in the school catchment area.

Enrolment to Brisbane State High School is prized due to its central location, good academic record and the fact it’s the only public school to belong to Queensland’s prestigious Great Public School (GPS) system.

But under Queensland Education department rules, admissions are limited based on catchment areas which are ‘measured by the shortest, most direct route by road to the main entrance of the school’.

Cheating the catchment system has become such a problem that according to Right to Information documents obtained by 7News, the sch

At 7.46am a male wearing a black t-shirt was observed to be in the backyard attending to the garden,’ one files note reads.

Another file showed a car in which a student was a passenger had been tailed.

‘There appeared to be other children in the vehicle. The vehicle was followed.’

Remarkably, the Queensland Education Department has not condemned the practice.

Instead it said in a statement the catchment system is important to ensure all families have access to quality education.

Enrolment applications are managed at a local school level as a part of normal administrative processes. Principals are responsible for determining what strategies their school will adopt to manage and review these applications.’

While some parents at the school have voiced their support of the move, saying the school should rightly be for people who live close by, there has also been criticism.

‘I’m sure parents are going to be disturbed that someone might be following them as they go about their ordinary business,’ Queensland Council for Civil Liberties president Michael Cope said.

Daily Mail Australia has contacted Brisbane State High School and Queensland Education for comment.