Teachers are counselled that it is “heterosexist” to refer to students as “girls and boys” and children are instructed to “role-play gay teenagers” in “Safe Schools” programme designed by Marxist activist Roz Ward raising a ‘red flag’ for parents.
The architect behind a contentious sexual diversity program set to become mandatory across all Victorian schools is an outspoken hard-left warrior who has publicly denounced Immigration Minister Peter Dutton as a “sexist prick”.
Safe Schools Coalition Victoria co-founder Roz Ward has also conceded the Safe Schools Coalition program is part of a broader Marxist strategy to change society.
Ms Ward is a La Trobe University academic who moonlights as a writer for Red Flag, the publication of the Socialist Alternative, a Trotskyite self-described Marxist organisation that has become a dominant force among university radicals and the broad-left activist movement.
Ms Ward’s recent contributions include an article published in January, titled “Sexist text messages are the least of Peter Dutton’s crimes”, in which she accuses the minister of being responsible for instances of sexual abuse being experienced by refugees at the Nauru processing centre.
“Dutton is responsible for these horrors,” she writes. “Sure, call out casual sexism, but we should rage longer and harder against his ongoing crimes against refugees.”
In another article, Ms Ward accused the former Victorian Liberal government of turning train stations into prisons after the introduction of a safety policy in 2012 of manning platforms with armed guards. She denounced the guards, known as “protective services officers”, as “uniformed thugs”.
The program has recently been linked with an improved public perception of safety.
Nationals MP George Christensen has likened the government funded Safe Schools program to child grooming in a parliament speech yesterday.
A prominent campaigner on gay, lesbian and transgender issues, including marriage equality, Ms Ward has repeatedly claimed that the Safe Schools Coalition was derived out of a bid to stamp out homophobia within schools.
Victorian Education Minister James Merlino, who posed for photographs with Ms Ward at the recent Pride March, declined a request for an interview yesterday.
However in a statement, his spokesman said that the “scare campaign” being run by opponents of Safe Schools Coalition has been “nothing short of disgraceful”.
“The comments from federal MPs like Cory Bernardi and George Christensen are perfect examples of the kind of attitudes that we need to change,” he said.
The Victorian government was the first to provide public funds to the cause. Former Labor education minister Bronwyn Pike, who has an openly gay son, announced $80,000 in seed funding in October 2010. A year later, the newly elected Coalition government announced further funding of $416,000 and the federal Labor government then lent its support in 2013 when Senator Penny Wong, who is gay, unveiled $8 million over four years to “help stop homophobia and create more inclusive school communities”.
The first initiative of its kind in Australia, Safe Schools Coalition Victoria was founded as part of Gay and Lesbian Health Victoria within the Australian Research Centre in Sex, Health & Society at La Trobe University. We have been supported by the Victorian Government since we launched the program in 2010 and appreciate the ongoing support of the Victorian Department of Education.
The Safe Schools Coalition program has since been rolled out to more than 500 schools and has the backing of the Australian Secondary Principals Association and the Australian Education Union.
Despite the program’s stated aims, its politically correct approach to sex education — under which teachers are counselled that it is “heterosexist” to refer to students as “girls and boys” and children are instructed to role-play gay teenagers — has outraged religious groups and conservative politicians.
Many have questioned whether it is appropriate for schools to be teaching children as young as 11 the meaning of terms such as “queer”, “pansexual”, “sister girl” and “trans guy”.
The Coalition’s website also lists more than 40 primary schools or P-12 colleges that have registered.
One of those, St Kilda Primary School in Melbourne, took part in the Midsumma Festival’s annual Pride March in January alongside the Safe Schools Coalition.
Ms Ward, who manages the program in Victoria, wrote about the landmark occasion on the coalition’s website: “For the first time ever we marched with a primary school as well as more than a dozen secondary schools, which just really shows the progress that has been made.”
St Kilda Primary School principal Sue Higgins confirmed that the school had taken part, but did not respond to further questions via email, including whether students had taken part.
West Australian Education Minister Peter Collier has raised concerns, describing aspects of it as “almost offensive”.
A former high school teacher, he said it could hurt the children it aimed to protect, although it had the hallmarks of an effective bullying strategy.
“I cannot see or fathom any situation where drawing attention to a particular set of students is going to necessarily assist that child,” Mr Collier said.
“I feel as soon as you start to identify or isolate very discrete elements of student cohorts, inevitably you’re going to draw attention to those students and if anything it could work in reverse.”
He said only 16 of the state’s 800 public schools had registered for the program.
Related:
Choose words carefully on Safe Schools: PM Malcolm Turnbull
February 26, 2016: Nationals MP George Christensen has likened the government funded Safe Schools program to child grooming in a parliament speech yesterday.
Malcolm Turnbull has urged government backbenchers campaigning against a gay and lesbian-focused schools program to think about how their words could hurt children.
But the prime minister has stopped short of heeding calls to rebuke Nationals MP George Christensen for likening the Safe Schools program to child sexual grooming.
And the program operators have vehemently denied Mr Christensen’s claims they link kids to pornographic web content or sex shops.
In his first comments on the program since ordering a review into Safe Schools, Mr Turnbull urged people discussing the program to use measured language.
“And to consider very carefully the impact of the words they use on young people and on their families,” he told reporters in Canberra on Friday.
“Bullying is absolutely unacceptable.”
The prime minister is facing pressure to reprimand Mr Christensen for saying the anti-bullying program was akin to paedophile grooming because it recommended, through partners, pornographic content, sex shops, sex clubs and adult communities to school kids.
The Queensland MP said the program had links to websites which advised kids about chest-binding, penis-tucking and gay sex, and gave instructions to children about unblocking websites without their parents’ knowledge.
The Australian Christian Lobby seized on his claims to call for an immediate suspension of the program while the review was under way.
They claim one of Safe Schools’ partners, Minus 18, has since removed a link to a sex shop.
“The Safe Schools Coalition purports to be an anti-bullying program but instead is providing links to adult-only sites,” ACL managing director Lyle Shelton said.
The Safe Schools Coalition dismissed those claims saying it did not link to, or recommend pornographic content, shops or clubs, nor teach kids to hide their browsing history.
The program continued to gain popularity, with 515 member schools and 10 more joining in the past week.
“We are also pleased to note that no schools have left the program since the government review was announced,” a spokeswoman told AAP.
The independent review into the $8 million program, details of which were released on Friday, will consider whether the material is age-appropriate, educationally sound, and aligned to the Australian curriculum.
It will be headed by University of Western Australia professor Bill Louden with the review’s report due by March 11.
Opposition Leader Bill Shorten issued a passionate defence of the program, saying it was about preventing bullying and intimidation.
“(It) lets children who are grappling with questions of identity know that they are not alone, they can seek help,” he told an Australian Education Union conference in Melbourne.
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I’m so disgusted my grandson has no future if this is what is happening now they are children let them be children worry about terrorism and what the govt is letting into our country this is what the Muslims want they will be laughing at us no need for them to attack we are killing ourselfs
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Maybe if a revolution ever comes, we all might understand how Pol Pot in Cambodia made it a priority to kill all the teachers. Because teachers in public schools might be just doing their jobs according to the educational syllabus provided but they are as complicit in the implementation of socialist cultural Marxism crap that has invaded our public schools as anyone else. Short of dragging them and the politicians responsible for indoctrinating children out of the schools and parliaments and doing what some might deem warranted, I can only urge ALL PARENTS TO TRY AND FIND THE MEANS TO PLACE YOUR CHILDREN INTO RELIGIOUSLY BASED PRIVATE SCHOOLS that will not enforce the curriculum to the extent that these socialist thinking cultural Marxists want ….. 😦
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