Make principals accountable
The Teaching Council is the body in New Zealand that registers teachers. They published last year their guidance for teachers when it comes to political involvement. They noted:
Teachers have the same rights to freedom of speech and political activity in your private lives as any New Zealander. Chatting about politics or policy in private conversation with colleagues in the staffroom or campaigning for a party in the weekend is all good (in general).
However, when acting as an employee, best practice is to be politically neutral (the Public Service Act has been amended, and teachers are now clearly part of the public service).
So this is pretty clear. Teachers can do politics as citizens, but not when acting in their professional capacity. They explicitly say teachers should not:
using my authority as a teacher to undermine the personal beliefs of my learners or inappropriately influence them to take a course of action
Now look at what Naenae School has done.
This is appalling. If teachers want to take leave and attend a protest march that is fine, but here the principal is announcing the school is taking an institutional stance on the Treaty of Principles Bill and they are taking the whole school to join in a protest march against the Government’s bill.
Apart from the ethical stance of using 5 – 10 year olds as pawns in a protest, the teachers doing this are clearly breaching the Teaching Council guidelines.
It is not clear who made the decision, but the principal is the leader of the school so is responsible. His name is Murray Bootten.
I would encourage people to file formal complaints that this action is a breach of the Teaching Council guidelines. Send them to the board chair and the Teaching Council. The board chair is Tina Renata. They don’t list an e-mail for her but use the office e-mail address. And you can fill in the Teaching Council form here.
I want to be very clear this is not to do with what their views are as an individual. If they want to attend a protest march as individuals, fine. But to bus in school children to a protest march is a breach of their professional standards, and their role as state employees funded by taxpayers.
And here you have a principal saying that their taxpayer funded school supports the protest march, and they will mark any student missing school to attend as having a justified absence. This is both breaching the law, and the Teaching Council neutrality standards.
The SWIS board chair is Mel Millington. You need to complaint to her first in order for the Teaching Council to then consider your complaint. But as the note says the board supports the decision, don’t expect a positive response. So also complain to with the Teaching Council form here.
Again this is not about their personal views. This is against what is a form of abuse – pushing their partisan political views on children.
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