Privileged decision!
Yesterday, an article featured in Stuff with the headline, Return to school decision plays 'roulette' with students' health, Māori education leaders say. Exactly! Truth-telling, as usual, from South Auckland!
Here are my thoughts on the decision for Years 11-13 to return to school on Tuesday, coming from my 30+ years of school principalship in the community of Kia Aroha College in Otara. I’m sure they are no different from those of all schools in similar communities and situations, where their principals who are trying to balance the stress and anxiety of students, staff and whānau, unable to get any time out from the weight of this decision on their shoulders
There is no way that I would send my kids or mokopuna to school, next week. I don’t care how old they are, or how threatened their (outdated & irrelevant) exam results might be, how much they miss their friends, or how keen their parents are to see them leave the house! It’s such a position of privilege to be able to feel comfortable with a return to school on Tuesday. Once again, which students benefit? Certainly not the students at Kia Aroha College in a community where just a couple of weeks ago every resident, symptomatic or not, was being urged to get a COVID test and where, at that time, and still, some 40 locations of interest were identified throughout the school’s community.
Shame on you Chris Hipkins! Who did you talk to? Who pressured you? Did you think this through at all? You say you lost sleep over the decision – not enough it seems! Do you really think it’s just a matter of schools keeping their doors and windows open or teaching outdoors? Kia Aroha College is located right under Auckland Airport’s flight path where planes fly overhead every five minutes on a quiet day. The school’s buildings are designed to protect everyone’s hearing and sanity! That means the windows do not open and the MOE budget air conditioning if it worked (which it doesn’t) would simply circulate the virus. Will there be funding to ventilate these buildings? I’ll bet not!
Schools in our communities like Kia Aroha know that their senior students have either taken up essential work to help keep food on the table or are caring for younger children so their parents can work. The majority are unvaccinated, they live in households with up to four generations where the virus they pick up at school could, at best, seriously compromise the health of their older whanau members, who they also take responsibility for looking after. When will those promoting that we learn to live with the virus understand that means that some will die of the virus and they are least likely to come from the ranks of politicians living in Wellington, or those partying hard on the North Shore. I guess that makes it OK?
Much aroha to my daughter, Haley, and the board, staff, whānau, and rangatahi of Kia Aroha College, and all schools in similar situations and conditions. The stress and workload on school leaders who are placed in the position of trying to explain the unexplainable to students and whānau is intense—and unacceptable. This could have been alleviated by allowing schools who understand their communities to make the choice themselves rather than announce, with two days’ notice it was going to happen.
Congratulations therefore to some schools, across different communities, who are putting the safety of their young people and their families first and choosing not to comply. After 30+ years of experience of challenging Government and Ministry of Education edicts that often make no sense and are completely out of touch with some schools’ realities, this one is right at the top as the stupidest yet!
