Who are the Titirangi Three?

2011 - Rudolf Steiner is 150 Years Old

At 17.50 on Saturday Nov 11th 2010, as Parliament sat in urgency, Education Amendment Bill passed into law, enshrining a crass, unfair and, we maintain, unlawful system of deregulation at private schools in New Zealand along with several other dodgy elements.

Anne Tolley said in her address at the third reading of the Bill that it “improves” the law relating to private schools.  It doesn’t.  It will fail countless children whose parents, judging by the results of our survey, are largely too scared to complain to private schools about some of the truly staggering things that go on in them, let alone make a useless complaint to the Ministry.

Yet Anne Tolley has not seen fit to introduce one of the welfare recommendations of the Law Commission.  Trevor Mallard, who up till now has not been noted for his support of the issues we have been raising, even went so far eventually as to introduce a Special Order Paper with an amendment calling for Tolley to implement the recommendations on suspensions, exclusions and expulsions.  Of course the attempt failed.  Too little too late perhaps, at any rate, the woman’s obviously possibly got a severe hearing impairment.

In his final comments, Trevor spoke of the Law Commission Review and how much research goes into such a paper.  He commented that when the Law Commission make recommendations, such as they did about closing these loopholes in the law regarding private schools, that although you can’t take for granted that they will all be implemented, it is understood that Government basically needs to have a very good reason for not implementing them.

What reasons has this Government given for not implementing the most basic welfare protections for 33,000 at private schools?  The bare-faced lie that “no evidence exists” of any problems.

We have forced them to be explicit about the complaints that the Ministry has received, which surely must only represent the tip of a very unpleasant ice-berg.  We have proved conclusively that some complaints have been tampered with, minimised and falsely reported and we can only imagine that the true number of children whose lives have been negatively impacted by the shocking abandonment of them by the hundred year old law, and now again by Anne Tolley, could be much much higher.

For example, we have collected damning evidence from several parents from the Titirangi Rudolf Steiner School, but we are the only ones who made a formal complaint about it.  We also remember how many parents were concerned about the school’s cavalier attitude towards bullying and freely expressed their concerns about the lack of parent representation at the public meeting we held after our kids were unlawfully expelled.

Indeed, as people continue to complete the survey and more awful stories of corruption, bullying (and we include the awful bullying of parents by schools), lying, deceit and the destruction of young people’s self-esteem, roll into our inbox, we can say with absolute certainly that Anne Tolley has no real regard for children of any sort, whether they go to a state school, or a private one.  She is a career politician and an ignorant one at that - don’t give up your day job!

So Trevor’s assertion that they need a good reason not to implement Law Commission recommendations, looks pretty sad doesn’t it.  Because in reality they only need lies,  and not even very good lies at that.  It wasn’t hard to prove they were lying.  All we had to do was ask the relevant questions and just wait for the lies to roll out.

So what now?  Well, now that some people have started to wake up to the fact that private schools contain real children, who did not “choose” to go to private schools, we will keep lobbying and try to capitalise on the new awareness of the problem that several MPs have admitted to.  Our research and activities have proved beyond doubt that Bruce Adin’s assertion that New Zealand doesn’t have class issues about private schools is a load of tosh.  This is one huge can of worms.

It does seem that only the reality of acute public embarrassment is a motivating force for change in this political climate.  So be it.  I am not exaggerating when I say that the evidence we have makes people’s hair stand on end.

Patrick Walsh President of the Secondary Principal’s Association commented that possibly the most persuasive argument was to do with the money, and right minded people do tend to be aghast at how a sector receiving so much money can get away with such awful behaviour.  It is true that the many abuses that go on in private schools in New Zealand are now being largely paid for by you, the tax-payer.  And that, unfortunately makes everyone responsible, even those who decry the whole elitist private school system and there are plenty of those!

Oh yes, and Anne Tolley can now funnel as much public money as she likes into the sector.  It was in the Bill.

We believe that the most convincing argument ought to be that it is because children, even the children of very rich parents, are human beings.

Interestingly, Top Chopper Tolley chopped her own Bill into two as she caved on the police checks for Limited Attendance Centres, making the amendment under Health and Safety Law, about which she is also very badly informed.  Nevertheless a precedent for a bottom line has been set, even while she sold 33,000 children down the river. 

But here is an interesting question, why did Anne Tolley change her mind at the last minute?  Could it have something to do with the power of video and the fact that Trevor Mallard posted our satirical take on Anne Tolley’s myopia on his blog? 

Anyway onwards into 2011 and an important anniversary year for the Steiner movement.  More on that soon.