Students at Wellington High are shocked and angered that their principal and board of trustees are ignoring a petition signed by over half the student body urging the removal of the Destiny Church from their premises. A campaign has been started by students, “Not In Our School's Destiny”, to raise public awareness. “The time has come for Destiny Church to leave our school. Since September we have urged them to leave, we have been more than patient and yet our tolerance has been abused,” says campaign spokesperson, year 12 student Anne Moar. “Destiny Church and its affiliated political party, Destiny New Zealand, are a destructive force who preach hate out of schools', and this is not OK!” The students find it ironic that in a school where there is a gay support group, that Destiny would continue to rent the premises. They say Destiny Church is the very antithesis of what their school stands for, and doesn't reflect the community or culture of Wellington High. However, their complaints have fallen on deaf ears. “We, the students have continued in our attempts to draw attention to this issue; however our attempts have been washed over by the board and principal,” says Moar. "Principal Prue Kelly has refused to reopen negotiations even after the Wellington Pastor, Campbell Bond said to his congregation that they will not leave until this place is "packed"." The campaign say they need help, and say the best way to assist is for the general public to write letters to the school Board of Trustees outlining concerns over the hire of school facilities for political purposes. Moar says lobbying the Board of Trustees themselves has proved fruitless, as their emails have been ignored. “We have lobbied politicians who have been accommodating. Now we will force this debate into the public arena.” Letters of protest should be addressed to a member of the Board of Trustees at Wellington High School, PO Box 4035, Wellington. BOARD OF TRUSTEES: Karen Day, Mike Orchard, Alison Bartley, Fatuatia Tufuga, Lorraine Allison, Karen Goodall, Sally Cleaver, Angie Dolan, Miriam Clark, Tom Dunn.
Credit: GayNZ.com News Staff
First published: Friday, 24th December 2004 - 12:00pm