Sure, here you go...
SOURCE: Herald Sun newspaper, 8th March, 2005. Box 14631, Melbourne, Victoria 8001 Australia
School parents beware 3851Concerned Citizen Ok, and that kinda agree's with my stance on the issue. It is stated in that article, that...
Union against lesbian speech Liam Houlihan and Tanya Giles 08mar05
THE head of Victoria's teachers' union has criticised the Government for backing a lesbian student teacher who discussed gay issues with her primary students.
The student teacher was axed from rounds at a state primary school after she told students she was in a lesbian relationship and discussed gay issues with them.
The woman denies the claims of angry parents that she also conducted love education clbuttes. Premier Steve Bracks yesterday backed Education Services Minister Jacinta Allan, who said she was "deeply troubled" by what she saw as the woman being bullied by the school. Mr Bracks said it was discrimination for the principal to suspend the student teacher from her rounds following complaints from parents.
But Mary Bluett, state president of the Australian Education Union, said the 49-year-old student teacher had not behaved well.
"Unless (Ms Allan) knows more than I do, it (her response) does appear to be a very strong reaction to what is a sensitive issue," Ms Bluett said. The Melbourne University student is believed to have told her Year 5 and 6 clbutt she was a lesbian after her partner picked her up from a school camp, and students asked who the woman was.
But Ms Bluett said a more experienced teacher would not have taken that approach. "The best course of conduct would be to say, `That's a friend, or that's none of your business - let's get back to work'," she said.
The Victorian Primary Principals buttociation said schools needed to properly explain their ethos and culture to new recruits, but that student teachers should never attempt love education.
"It's not appropriate that the student teacher conduct love education of any sort, let alone discuss gay issues," the buttociation's president, Fred Ackerman, said.
He said the main areas of tension between schools and their student teachers were dress, punctuality, clarity of speech, legibility of writing, and the example that they set.
