LOUIS BURKE | Culture | CONTACT
In an unravelling series of events, The School of Hard Knocks has been scrambling to distance themselves from graduate Barry Hodgson, in the wake of the 67-year old’s inflammatory comments online.
Between the hours of 10pm and 4am, Hodgson went on a Facebook rampage commenting on 412 total posts with such statements as “it will b sharia law next” “your [sic] the gender God made you” and “why weren’t any of these people doing anything about our homeless problem?”
Hodgson maintains that he was not aiming to offend the people he called ‘snowflakes,’ ‘leftie scum’ and ‘cucks’ but was “just trying to wake them up a little bit and stop being so soft.”
“School of bloody hard knocks mate, that’s where you learn it all! You don’t learn anything about the world sitting in front of a computer for six hours like I just did.”
Staunch in his stance, Hodgson denies claims that his behaviour casts his alma mater in a negative light.
“Yeah, I say what I think on Fakebook [sic] sometimes, so what? It’s why the misses won’t share an account with me anymore.”
A statement made by Hard Knocks Grammar condemns the actions of Hodgon and states that even the views he holds were not instilled by him at school.
“We condemn the actions and comments of former student Barry Hodgson, an individual who does not speak for us as an educational institution.
During his time at The School of Hard Knocks Barry was not taught these views but rather to speak for himself and call a duck a duck and not believing everything you read OK. You want to know someone who is causing trouble? Try looking at Bill Shorten, some of the stuff he’s up to mate.”
Speaking exclusively to The Advocate, The School of Hard Knocks office secretary Ethel Mulkworth (82) says students like Hodgson give the school a bad name with their inflammatory comments on the social media websites they claim to despise.
“This one is especially bad though. Barry Hodgson was the Dux in his year.”
Son of Hodgson, Barry Hodgson Junior (35) says the old school attitudes instilled in Hard Knocks Grammar graduates combined with their old age is what has lead to the school’s decline in image in recent years.
“Social media really makes it easy to spot the fuckwits.”
“No, I didn’t go to my dad’s stupid school, I went to a selective school and actually learnt things. My dad used to call it ‘poof school.’”
Conversely, School of Hard Knocks Principal Bernie Rippa (98) says the dwindling reputation of his proud institution is due to the young age of the retirees who need to exercise more caution when conversing online.
“It’s these young fellas, don’t know when to shut their mouth. Tell ya now, we wouldn’t of had that in my day.”
