Seatoun School Kids Klub - the story

The decision by the Seatoun School Board of Trustees (BOT) to not allow a kid's club to meet at the school has done the rounds. Of the 400 kids at the school, no more than 30 are turning up to this club. Furthermore, nearly a quarter of the school kids' parents have give written permission for their kids to go to this lunch time club - as is required - and the former Board of Trustees was perfectly happy with that. In fact much of the permission was given after the new Board of Trustees was appointed.

But in April last year, a new Board of Trustees was elected. Since that time many parents have given their permission to attend the Christian based Kids Klub. In February this year it told the Kids Klub group that the school is a secular school and they didn’t want religious groups - not even in the lunch hour. It gave no legal basis to it's decision whatsoever. So why did it take the new Board of Trustees 10 months to say this?

The answer: The BOT was made aware of the groups activities at the end of the year when the group forwarded a report to the trustees and they decided to get rid of the group.

The parents were so annoyed that this BOT could tell their kids what they can do in their lunchtime that one "concerned parent" contacted Geoffrey Palmer about issues regarding the Bill of Rights. This parent was not part of the Kids Klub at all, she was merely a parent who was a lawyer, knew the Bill of Rights, and knew Palmer was the man for the job. I know who paid the bill for Palmer's work but I can't reveal that. I have a fair idea who paid the Board of Trustees legal bill as well, given that the Board of Trustees had links to the legal firm they appointed. Perhaps one of the Trustees used to work there? I know at least one was a lawyer.

As you can see if you read Palmer's legal opinion, he considers that the school's Board of Trustees have breached the Bill of Rights by telling this Kids Klub that they can no longer meet in the lunch hour at the school. It was after that letter that the BOT hired Chapman Tripp. Interestingly there are lawyers among the members of the Board. The Board told the " concerned parents" that Chapman Tripp was just as good as Palmer.

Umm… who was it that wrote the Constitution Act 1986? Who was it that wrote a good deal of the Bill of Rights? Who is the leading constitutional lawyer in the country? Oh yes, it's the same person. Former Primer Minister Geoffrey Palmer.

The Board of Trustees decided to go to the parents in defending its decision. On 25 May a questionnaire went to parents of the school - three months after the decision to ban the Kids Klub and two months after the BOT was make aware that they were breaching the Bill of Rights. The only question pertaining to Kids Klub in the questionnaire was :

On the 23 Feb 2005 the Board of Trustees made a decision to decline an application from a religions based club to operate at school within school hours, the reason for the decision was based on the belief that Seatoun school should be secular. Do you agree with this decision.

The "concerned parents "are awaiting a response. But why was the question ever sent in the first place, with the full knowledge of the School Trustees Association? It is a biased question and has absolutely nothing to do with any activity undertaken within school hours.

Yes the School Trustees Association have known about this for a while and Trevor Mallard has known about this dispute for well over a month, but in a letter to the parents he said he would pass it on to David Benson Pope.

Guess what role he has in Education now?

It is clear that the Board of Trustees are guilty of religious discrimination, and I`d probably say that the School Trustees Association and the Education Ministry should also share some of that guilt as it did nothing to address that injustice.