in which we discuss my school getting pwned on the front of the age.com

[masonnnn]

it is entertaining reading how all the different news articles present it differently to the truth in varying ways/ mostly exaggerate...
still, at least it raises an important issue

[Caspar]

Non sensationalist news is much less interesting .

[simpak]

is the school that religious?

We had chapel once a term and some Good Friday service and sang a hymn sometimes in Assembly.  And had religion studies till yr 10.
Oh and we had a school prayer.
But when you compare that to schools you make their students do VCE Religion - not entirely?

[simpak]

Lettuce explain harr.

Okay so what happens is, for the Yr 11 formal (which is not, technically known as a 'dinner dance' bee tee dubs) girls are invited to bring a partner.
You must write down the name of your partner on a list but you do not have to specify their age.
Sometimes, you will need to specify the school they go to just so the school knows something about them, I suppose?
But never their age.

So discriminating against age for this one girl, and not for any of the others, is still discrimination no matter which way you look at it.

Secondly, younger boys would have attended.

Thirdly, this has happened continuously at our school.
Like, once a year at least.  This is just the first time the media has blown it up.

[Cianyx]

In my school, you can only bring a guy to the formal if you're gay. That's racist

[Stig]

fail..go school

[Cianyx]

Lol, you're just racist. Against straight people

[Stig]

wrong context

[Yitzi_K]

since im a lesbian, i side with the girl automatically.
aha.

however, i dont think religious based schools should be allowed to discriminate based on religious values of others as well as sexuality.

but they have money and will buy their way out of it once again.

If you choose to go to a religious school, aren't you agreeing to abide by their religious code? I don't mean follow all the rules all the time, but at a school event, why should they not be allowed to impose their religion? It's the students' (or their parents, who are responsible for them) choice to go to the school, so they should follow the rules, whether they agree with them or not.

[MuggedByReality]

 ^I agree. Collin Li put it well in another thread:

"Their house, their rules" is an important principle. It would actually be imposing (and hard to enforce) if you forced schools to not discriminate. However, it is to the detriment of catholic schools that they choose to discriminate: they are left with less choice. You might accuse me of being unfair to the homosexual teacher, but there is no better alternative. Forcing a school to view homosexual teachers objectively is not practical, nor is it fair for the school - who own the property and should be able to manage the school the way they wish. On the other hand, the lower demand (since some catholic schools will not demand them) for homosexual teachers will make them cheaper for other schools to hire them - helps the parents.

Keep in mind that even though I am against outlawing discrimination, I am certainly not against individual choices against discrimination. The bad publicity the school gets from media sensationalisation ("discrimination scandal!") is the price they pay.

[Glockmeister]

since im a lesbian, i side with the girl automatically.
aha.

however, i dont think religious based schools should be allowed to discriminate based on religious values of others as well as sexuality.

but they have money and will buy their way out of it once again.

If you choose to go to a religious school, aren't you agreeing to abide by their religious code? I don't mean follow all the rules all the time, but at a school event, why should they not be allowed to impose their religion? It's the students' (or their parents, who are responsible for them) choice to go to the school, so they should follow the rules, whether they agree with them or not.

What about a private school that allows teachers to smack children? Is that a rule that in this day and age, schools should be allowed to simply allowed to apply with the students having no right to question said law?

[simpak]

However, they in this particular case they didn't mention a thing about religion and instead tried to cover it up with tired excuses.
If they had debated it on the basis of school values or principles, there would have been an uproar but you would have been correct, because the school has a right to enforce its own policies on the basis of values and beliefs.

My issue with the scenario is the ridiculous stuff that she is saying now, when, from personal experience I know none of this is true.  To lie consistently about what is permitted at Year 12 formals, even, when I have a friend who was turned down many a time when she asked to bring a girl last year, annoys me immensely.
Anybody who is willing to believe it is crazy.

On Schnagl's side though, if you listen to Hannah on 3AW, she does sound very uncomfortable with the questions she is being asked, which indicates media blow-up which may have been taken out of her control and spin she had never intended.

At the crux, this issue basically revolves around deciding whether to piss off the parents of the school who may be more conservative in true 'high income' style (although I don't speak for my own parents, or any of my friends' parents here) or whether to piss off people who don't give her a lot of money.  It has nothing to do with moral standards or any kind of religious code upheld by the school...they don't have as many strict standards as you might think, detention doesn't even exist at IGGS.

[MuggedByReality]

since im a lesbian, i side with the girl automatically.
aha.

however, i dont think religious based schools should be allowed to discriminate based on religious values of others as well as sexuality.

but they have money and will buy their way out of it once again.

If you choose to go to a religious school, aren't you agreeing to abide by their religious code? I don't mean follow all the rules all the time, but at a school event, why should they not be allowed to impose their religion? It's the students' (or their parents, who are responsible for them) choice to go to the school, so they should follow the rules, whether they agree with them or not.

What about a private school that allows teachers to smack children? Is that a rule that in this day and age, schools should be allowed to simply allowed to apply with the students having no right to question said law?

Of course a school shouldn't be allowed to contravene the law. I am sure Coblinator thinks his argument should apply to all privately-run institutions; we just happened to be talking specifically about schools in this and the other thread. With your example, whether or not one thinks smacking should be allowed in schools depends entirely on whether or not one thinks it should be legal at all.

[ninwa]

I agree a private school can be as backward as they want to be. But in that case, make it clear that that is your stance. Don't go around umming and erring and putting up this ridiculous facade of "we're not against gay people" when all and sundry can see that's really the case (and when it's been backed up by students themselves).

@Yitzi, socially progressive religious schools do exist. I went to one.

[jaccerz]

since im a lesbian, i side with the girl automatically.
aha.

however, i dont think religious based schools should be allowed to discriminate based on religious values of others as well as sexuality.

but they have money and will buy their way out of it once again.

If you choose to go to a religious school, aren't you agreeing to abide by their religious code? I don't mean follow all the rules all the time, but at a school event, why should they not be allowed to impose their religion? It's the students' (or their parents, who are responsible for them) choice to go to the school, so they should follow the rules, whether they agree with them or not.

i agree, if you choose to go to a private school, but how many kids are out there these days, that are FORCED by their parents to go to a private school?

I mean hell, i had no choice to what high school i went to, my parents forced me to go to the one my mother worked at, as opposed to the one in the area that was a decent one and not a shithole like mine was.