The battle of Thurston Place

The battle of Thurston Place

News release

Dr Liz Gordon, National Chair, QPEC

A new school at Bucklands Beach is being built, while many in the the community arm themselves with large meetings, protest marches and possible legal action. What on earth is going on? Liz Gordon reports….

“The problem appears to be in two parts. On the one hand, the Minister of Education has acknowledged that the Ministry failed to undertake community consultation before the school was started. While there had previously been a special school on the site, the Ministry clearly should have talked to the community and explained its plans.

“On the other hand, this community is acting like it is repelling the Goths in rejecting the establishment of the school. Accusations of racism have rung out in parliament, and meetings, protests and legal funds have been started.

“QPEC is of the view that this issue needs to be resolved, and that both sides should take a step back and seek a resolution”, said Dr Gordon.

“We believe that planned legal action is unlikely to succeed, as the law is very plain that the Minister has a right to establish a school, subject only to issuing a notice in the Gazette. If she did issue such notice, she followed the law fully. If she did not, then a court would probably order her to do so. It would not require the new school to be pulled down or abandoned”.

Dr Gordon said that a Judge would point out that as Thurston Place ends at a huge swathe of education land, residents would be expected to assume that schools would be built there.

“However,” said Liz Gordon, “these legal facts do not absolve the Ministry of its social responsibility to consult”.

“By not doing so, the Ministry has allowed community fears about these young and needy children to escalate. The mainly Chinese immigrant community appear to have come to the view that these children will be dangerously roaming the suburb, attacking other children and affecting property values.

“The Ministry needs to act now, sending staff around the area explaining who these children are, why they need to come to the school, how they will be kept secure and how they will benefit from the new school. If the community started viewing these children as just children, who in many cases have been abused and neglected and who need our help, I am sure the resistance would fade away.

Liz Gordon called for a calm and effective solution to the problem, that still took into account the needs of these disadvantaged children for a new school. “QPEC has sympathies with all the parties, and would be happy to mediate if required”, she said.

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