Girls who are girls but not girls — It’s time to stop the Safe Schools subterfuge
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THE story of Cheltenham Girls High School
is a textbook example of the subterfuge involved in the controversial
Safe Schools Coalition and how far education authorities and governments
will go to preserve and conceal a program that subverts parents rights
and values.
When
the story broke of Cheltenham Girls High School banning the use of the
terms “girls”, “ladies” and “women”, first came the denials, then the
cover up. (Pic: John Feder/The Australian)
It is worth forensically examining how a school and a minister attempted to discredit a true story
last week, how some media outlets gullibly accepted official denials,
and how a group of courageous parents and teachers defied the cover-up
anonymously to voice their concerns.
The
fear felt by the whistleblowers, and the secrecy and euphemisms
employed to disguise the true nature of the Safe Schools agenda really
is of Orwellian proportions.
And the ultimate irony is that the
principal of CGHS, Susan Bridge stood up at an assembly on Thursday to
declare the school was being “bullied” by the media.
Parents and teachers defied the cover up to voice their concerns. (Pic: David Swift)It all began last week with our story of
how teachers at the all-girls school in northwest Sydney were asked in a
staff meeting to stop referring to students as “girls”, ladies” and
“women”, but to use “gender-neutral” language instead.
The story was based on detailed accounts from insiders who attended the meeting, but asked not to be identified.
More
than half the meeting, which was held at the end of last term, after
school hours, was spent specifically addressing the planned
implementation of the Safe Schools program.
A video clip from the
Safe Schools resources toolkit was shown at the meeting, depicting a
transgender child who had changed from male to female.
“The
‘anti-discrimination act’, was projected across the board and it was
stated that any teacher who did not comply with this act was considered a
homophobe and law-breaker who would be receiving penalties as [is the
case for] any other discrimination offences, and was not welcome by the
school,” said someone who attended the meeting.
The tone of the
two teachers running the meeting was described as “very authoritarian”
and the presentation “included the request that all staff members within
the school refrain from using terms such as ‘girls’, ‘ladies’ and
‘women’, and to replace those terms with ‘students’ and other non-gender
specific terminology.
“This did not come from the principal, but
from the two teachers running the meetings. They stated that teachers
were to limit their usage of these terms to accommodate LGBTI students
within the school... There was no way it wasn’t demanding,” an insider
said yesterday.
All week, the NSW Minister for education Adrian
Piccoli and school principal Bridge have denied our story and denied
that CGHS is a member of the Safe Schools Coalition. This is despite the
fact the CGHS was listed on the public register of NSW member schools
on the Safe Schools Coalition’s website, but parents were never
informed.
Mysteriously, that list of 135 NSW schools vanished from
the website on July 8, so parents can no longer see if their children’s
school has signed up. Thus far, member schools in Victoria and WA
remain on the website.
Online media outlets, including the Guardian Australia and Crikey have gullibly accepted the official denials at face value.
NSW
Minister for education Adrian Piccoli denied CGHS is a member of the
Safe Schools Coalition, despite the fact the school was listed on the
Safe Schools Coalition’s website. (Pic: Dylan Robinson)Principal
Bridge refused to answer our calls or respond to six detailed questions
emailed on Tuesday in preparing our story and repeated on Friday. She
released a public statement late Wednesday denying the story.
Minister Piccoli was provided with the same detailed questions on Tuesday, plus three additional questions.
He
responded on Tuesday at 6.03pm with a generic single paragraph
statement which did not deny the story or address the questions, and
said the Department was investigating.
However early the next morning, he told radio 2UE and 2GB the story was untrue.
Piccoli
cited “advice” from the Principal, who has gone into hiding, and he
used the old “straw man” trick of denying things that were not in our
story.
He even told 2GB’s Ben Fordham a fanciful story about that
controversial staff meeting. He denied staff were asked to refrain from
using gender-specific language, and said they were simply asked to use
“appropriate language when referring to people with disabilities.
“There
used to be words used to describe people with disabilities, we don’t
use those any more... According to what I’ve been told it was a meeting
about using appropriate language that doesn’t breach the anti
discrimination act.”
Yeah sure, minister. Pull the other one.
Someone
who actually attended the meeting said yesterday there was no mention
of people with disabilities: “It was all about LGBTI and supporting
students who are gender-confused.”
Safe Schools is a federally
funded resource is presented as an “anti-bullying” measure, but it has
been developed by self-described Marxist academics at Melbourne’s La
Trobe University’s Sex, Health and Society Research Centre as a way of
re-engineering children’s attitudes on sexual orientation and gender
fluidity, without parental consent.
How long will we let the Safe Schools program run rampant? (Pic: Daniel Wilkins)****************************
A
long line of angry parents turned up at Cheltenham Girls High School on
Wednesday morning demanding to know why they weren’t informed that the
school had signed up to the controversial Safe Schools “anti-bullying”
program.
After our story revealing that teachers at the school had
been asked at a staff meeting to refrain from using gender-specific
terms such as “girls” and ladies” to refer to students, so many parents
want to tell me their story there hasn’t been time to talk to them all.
Among
their concerns are that permission slips are not required for students
to attend lunchtime meetings of the schools’ Queer-Straight Alliance,
whereas parental consent is required for other activities, such as
meetings of Christian or Muslim clubs at school.
Despite the
Federal Government requiring “agreement of relevant parent bodies for
schools to participate” in Safe Schools, “parental consent for student
participation,” and “an official fact sheet … for parents,” the CGHS
parents I spoke to have not heard a word from the school.
Angry
parents have spoken out about the stealthy implementation of Safe
Schools at Cheltenham Girls High School. (Pic: John Feder/The
Australian)They have had to piece together information based on confidential conversations with their daughters and teachers.
“We
have had no letter, there is no reference to that program on the school
website, so for me and for a number of parent we are concerned that
there has not been a consultative process and there hasn’t been an
openness and a transparency,” Said Dr Wendy Moran, the mother of a Year
12 student.
One Muslim mother said she has been so concerned this
year about the stealthy implementation of Safe Schools at CGHS that she
and her husband are contemplating moving their daughter to a Catholic
School.
“I do understand we’re all different and our family does
respect differences. But it’s inappropriate to be bringing in all this
information and highlighting gender [issues]. We are confusing kids,
especially at this age when they have enough hormonal issues to deal
with … As adults we need to provide a safe, peaceful environment so they
can focus on their education.”
Concerned about possible
repercussions for their daughters if they complain to the school, other
parents at the elite, ethnically diverse, government school have
appealed to politicians to step in.
Some Chinese parents have added their names to a bilingual anti-Safe Schools petition to go to NSW Parliament.
At least, after our story, the school has publicly pledged to continue to use the word “girls”.
