Australian School Sparks Row After Allowing Pupils To Choose Between Boy Or Girl Uniforms
Newtown High School is located in Sydney
An Australian high school has sparked a national row - after allowing pupils to wear boy or girl uniforms, irrespective of their gender.
In a statement, the Newtown High School of Performing Arts in Sydney explained how it had changed its uniform policy to allow all pupils to ‘wear any part of the available uniform options’.
The change was hailed by several parents and students, who said it supported transgender students who previously needed a psychologist’s report to get permission to cross-dress.
But the Australian Christian Lobby (ACL) has condemned the change as radical - and now a number of MP’s have backed the group’s call to remove government funding from a national programme aimed at preventing bullying in schools that also allows cross-dressing.
Wendy Francis, a spokeswoman for the ACL, said: ‘It’s a deeper problem than just boys choosing to wear a girl’s skirt to school.
‘What they’re trying to do in schools is make boys’ and girls’ gender disappear.’
It isn’t how many schools adopted the uniform policy, but the Sydney education department said that Newtown High was not the only one in New South Wales, Australia’s most populous state.
Maya Saric, who has two children aged 15 and 13 at Newtown High, described the change as progressive.
She said: ‘All the parents I mentioned it to didn’t bat an eyelid and thought it was perfectly reasonable.’
Prime minister Malcom Turnbull has since bent to pressure from MPs by agreeing to review the continuation of eight million dollars in government funding for the Safe Schools programme, which teaches pupils about gay and lesbian issues.
But Safe Schools Coalition Australia said it welcomed the opportunity to demonstrate to the federal government the positive impact of its programme.
The group’s website says it is a national coalition of organisations and schools working to create safe school environments for same-sex inter-sex and gender-diverse students, staff and families.
