Government investigation into anti-queer discrimination at schools a 'top priority'

Wednesday, 29 June 2022

The government is making an investigation into anti-queer discrimination in schools a “top priority”, after concerns were raised that some Christian educators had incorporated policies harmful to LGBTQI students.

Associate Education Minister Jan Tinetti, a former school teacher and principal, told Stuff she had asked education officials to urgently investigate schools’ practices and policies on inclusivity, to ensure “every single student” felt safe - regardless of gender identity or sexuality.

”This is my absolute top priority, to ensure all young people are safe in our schools,” Tinetti said Wednesday. “When something comes to light in one school, it is the norm that the ministry would look into other schools to see if this is happening elsewhere.”

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Tauranga pride advocate and businessman Gordy Lockhart

She said she asked the Ministry of Education along with the Education Review Office to investigate and come back with a range of options.

“I can assure people this will be done in haste. There is nothing more important to me than to ensure the safety of our young people at school.”

Tinetti told Stuff she was also drawing up guidelines to ensure all New Zealand schools were inclusive of the rainbow community.

”Only recently I released guidelines to all school boards on anti-bullying. I feel this should go further to address the LBQTIA+ community in particular,” she said.

Stuff revealed queer advocates Gordy Lockhart, a Tauranga businessman, and Shaneel Lal, an Auckland law student and activist, had written to the government asking for an inquiry into “institutionalised homophobia” in some New Zealand schools.

Earlier this month, following a complaint from Lockhart, discriminatory language about marriage and gender was uncovered at Tauranga’s under-fire Bethlehem College, a Christian school which also receives government funding.

The college’s position on gay marriage and gender identity caused public outrage and prompted allegations that students were being harmed.

Stuff also revealed the college had a working document on gender, and a former trans student at the school tried to end their life after the school refused to use their pronouns, threatened suspension for wearing a uniform of their preferred gender, and told them: “God doesn’t make mistakes.”

This week, three more state-integrated Christian schools were identified as having similar discriminatory and anti-queer language: Maranatha Christian School in Lower Hutt, Cornerstone Christian School in Palmerston North, and Matamata Christian School.

For example, in its public statement of beliefs Matamata Christian School says :“Homosexual, lesbian or any other relationships or partnerships are seen as the outworking of mankind’s rebellious nature and therefore are not consistent with the school’s Special Christian Character.”

Under the current education system in Aotearoa, religious schools are allowed to receive government funding if they are approved as state-integrated schools, with relevant documentation signed off with the Ministry of Education.

Following the revelation this month that Bethlehem College had added its discriminatory statement on marriage ten years after signing its state integration agreement, the college was instructed to remove this statement from its documentation.

From Wednesday June 29, the statement now no longer appears on the college’s website.

A similar process of government intervention could soon occur at other schools, said Tinetti, depending on what the ministry investigation discovered.

Ministry of education spokesman Sean Teddy said that under the Education Act, state-integrated schools were legally entitled to have a religious special character, but how those beliefs were operationalised should reflect the integration agreement and the requirements of the New Zealand Bill of Rights Act 1990 and Human Rights Act 1993.

“This means not discriminating against anyone.”

Human rights law expert professor Claire Breen, from Waikato University, said while religious schools were entitled to their beliefs, if they were taking public money, their agreement with the ministry put a limit on those beliefs.

Queer rights advocate Shaneel Lal said it was imperative for the government to check how the rainbow community was being treated in all New Zealand state-integrated schools, highlighting that anti-queer beliefs had an impact on mental health.

“The church and state were separated for a reason. The church is encroaching on children’s right to a safe education,” they said.