Being a school Principal in a democracy

In my country of Australia our federal parliament has just passed legislation to legalise same sex marriage.  It has been a fierce debate across the country as Australians were given a postal vote to assist the parliamentarians.  The vote was clearly in favour of sane sex marriage.

Schools are right in the mix of the collateral events that might arise from this legislation.

Government, or as my overseas colleagues would say, public schools must be secular in every way.  It would seem that this is clear cut and I would hope that it is.  The days are gone in nominally Christian Australia where prayers and nativity plays were the go.  It has to be a comparative religious environment suited to our multi-cultural country and as such is embedded by law.  I've got to say, having recently seen my grand daughter in a nativity play in a private Christian school I weep for the Principals of government schools. It was enough to bring tears to the eyes and the little kids were wonderful. However supposing as Principal I said yes to a nativity play yet had Jewish and Muslim students in my school.  I suppose they could be exempt as Jewish children were from Christian religious education in the good old days when I was a student. By the way, I am not Jewish yet have a Jewish daughter-in-law and Jewish grand children.  It is not a problem in  our family and I wonder if it might not be a problem in schools.  Silly me, of course it would be a problem for some.

It is not that simple when it comes to sexuality.  I have written about the Safe Schools Program in previous posts.  To recap briefly this program originally designed for primary (elementary) and secondary (high) schools enables the exploration of sexuality taking into account the needs of LGBTI  students. On the face of it one would have to say that this is a good thing, especially for the wellbeing of LGBTI students.  However the program is so controversial that it has been banned in government primary schools.  As a school Principal I would want the authority to canvass parents for their permission for their student children to experience this program.  If a parent said no then so be it and their sons and daughters would be exempt. Tricky!

For non government private schools some function in accordance with religious beliefs that are antithetical to same sex marriage and in Australia are refusing to budge.  There is now some talk that their government funding may be in  jeopardy. I don't think that in any of these schools there is any sense of not accepting LGBTI persons for who they are.  It is just about the marriage thing.

It seemed in my days as a school Principal so much simpler, but I guess it wasn't simple for LGBTI students who suffered in silence.  I don't recall any incidents of this but worry that it could have been overlooked by yours truly.  They were unfortunately different times with less sensitivity to issues like LGBTI.  The acronym had not even been invented.  I'm glad it has.

May the Force be with you!


GD