ACT Education Spokesman Donna Awatere Huata today said she was extremely concerned that Maori girls attending Queen Victoria would lose out under a plan to merge the school with troubled St Stephens School.

Mrs Huata said the girls and boys schools were being forced together because the adults charged with running them had failed to resolve financial and cultural difficulties within the schools.

“The pressure is now on Queen Victoria to close and merge. That school has put in a lot of effort in recent years to really lift standards for their girls,” she said.

“I am very concerned that the culture of violence and bullying that has become such a problem amongst the boys at St Stephens will transfer into the new school and, in particular, be visited upon the girls,” said Mrs Huata.

“Before this proposal is taken any further there must be a thorough investigation of the impact on the students at Queen Victoria. If the decision is made to proceed parents and students must be given a guarantee that the negative attitudes of male students at St Stephens toward one another won’t be transferred into the new school and that the girls won’t be subjected to violence ,bullying and harassment,” said Donna Awatere Huata.

ENDS

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