A Brisbane mother who found out on Twitter that a pedophile teacher had been working at her daughter's school says she may never send her child there again.
Crossbench senator Derryn Hinch used parliamentary privilege on Tuesday night to accuse Brisbane's Redlands College of lying to parents about the teacher by telling them he was on long service leave when he was actually behind bars.
Senator Hinch told the upper house the teacher was convicted after grooming a boy and sexually abusing him for several years.
But when a concerned parent told the school he planned to tell other parents the truth he was threatened with legal action, the senate heard.
The mother, who does not wish to be named, says she found out about the allegations made in the Senate on Twitter.
On Wednesday she kept her daughter, who's attended the school for several years, home and may never send her back.
"I never, ever expected to find out via Twitter that there had been a teacher at that school that had abused a child - that's not OK," she told AAP.
"I just couldn't believe it, we were just in shock."
Based on the information provided by Senator Hinch, the mother said she's disgusted with Redlands College, which educates children from prep to year 12.
The school community didn't have an opportunity to support the victim and parents were denied the opportunity to talk to their children about what happened or whether they'd had contact with the teacher.
"They just completely swept it under the rug and just negated what's happened," the mother said.
A statement from school principal Mark Bensley, obtained by AAP, was sent to parents after 1am on Wednesday and said Senator Hinch was misinformed.
"It is unfortunate that the good name of Redlands College has been questioned by misinformation that was provided to him," it said.
"Throughout the investigation and after the trial the college was explicitly directed by police not to make any public statements or to notify the college community.
"This was specifically to protect the identification of the victim."
The teacher had resigned from the school before it was informed of the allegations - which was in the hands of police - and the events did not take place at the college.
"We believe we acted properly at all times and that no student was placed at risk," the statement said.
"(We) can assure you that Redlands College has solid structures in place to protect and support students."
Senator Hinch said the school had a duty to alert parents to what had happened "in case there are other victims".
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