Parents Unleash On Aussie School For Forcing Boys Into Gender Apology Exercise

Parents have unleashed on an Aussie school that forced students to partake in an exercise that was meant to educate everyone on gender issues.

Warrnambool secondary school Brauer College in Victoria got male pupils to stand up during assembly 'as a symbolic gesture of apology for the behaviours of their gender'.

While it was designed to just be a simple, quick and poignant message about gender issues in Australia, it wasn't long before the exercise got back to parents.

According to the ABC, some mums and dads reported their kids finding the exercise 'confronting'.

Year 12 student Levi, who had only been at the school since the beginning of the year, told A Current Affair it was pretty strange.

"They told us to stand up and turn to a girl in our class and say sorry," he explained to the Channel 9 programme. "I don't think it's okay to be sexually assaulted. I felt a bit under pressure to stand up and if I didn't I felt like I was a bad person."

Parents were similarly confused and angry over the exercise, despite the school issuing an apology.

One mum told ACA: "All it's doing is saying they're perpetrators in the future, they are predators they are rapists. The school's handled this in a very bad way."

Another parent told 7News: "[My son] said that he was made to stand up and basically apologise... it wasn't explained properly to the male students what they were doing or why they were doing it.

"They really should have made more of an effort to notify the parents."

Brauer College principal has since issued a statement admitting the exercise wasn't meant to make male students feel like they had done something wrong.

Jane Boyle said: "Schools play an important role in the promotion of safety and respect of all students, and discussions in schools around respect towards girls and women are a key part of this vital work.

"At a whole school assembly, Brauer College discussed the topic of respect for woman and the importance of bystander behaviour and speaking up to report incidents of inappropriate behaviour.

"As part of this discussion boys were asked to stand as a symbolic gesture of apology for the behaviours of their gender that have hurt or offended girls and women.

"In retrospect, while well-intended, we recognise that this part of the assembly was inappropriate.

"Today, the school is contacting parents to explain the reasons behind the assembly and to ensure that any student who requires support is aware that it is available."

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Topics: Australia

Stewart Perrie

Stewart Perrie is a Trending Journalist at LADbible. His first job was as a newsreader and journalist at the award winning Sydney radio station, Macquarie Radio. He was solely responsible for the content broadcast on multiple stations across Australia when the MH17, Germanwings and AirAsia disasters unfolded. Stewart has covered the conflict in Syria for LADbible, interviewing a doctor on the front line, and has contributed to the hugely successful UOKM8 campaign.

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