Warrnambool School Makes Male Students Apologise To All Female Students At An Assembly

Why this is not OK

A Warrnambool Secondary School asked all boys to stand up at assembly as a “symbolic gesture of apology for the behaviours of their gender”. They had to apologise to the females at the assembly for the wrongs done on behalf of their gender.

What on earth was this school thinking?

I am all for creating equality.

My partner and I go to great lengths to teach our children (we have a son and a daughter) that they are equal in all things. We are careful to avoid gender stereotypes. We encourage our children to pursue their passions and interests, no matter what they may be. We strive to teach our children “consent” — that if someone says no, it means no. And that they have the right to say no to giving cuddles and kisses, even to their grandparents, each other and us.

We believe that teaching respect and consent at home, follows our children to school. We hope that we are helping to build resilient, respectful kids who don’t see gender as a barrier or a weakness.

Rather, they will not see gender at all, they will just see people.

Respectful Relationships and Consent Education.

The Victorian Government has made “consent education” mandatory in all government schools across Victoria. The consent classes are a continuation of the Respectful Relationship Program. This program supports schools and early childhood centres to teach “how to build healthy relationships, resilience and confidence”.

Respectful Relationships and Consent Education are invaluable programs for all our school children. By setting out a mandatory framework, our state government has taken a huge step towards creating a safer environment.

Yet, Brauer College in Warrnambool has taken it too far. By asking all those boys to stand up and apologise they are not teaching them positive attitudes. They are not showing them how to respect our female population, themself and others. And they are most certainly not promoting a positive attitude.

What they have done, is teach those boys that by being born with a penis they have something to apologise for. They have made them feel ashamed for the gender they were born as.

This is not OK.

This is not the right way to teach respectful relationships or consent education. This is reversing the very gender bias we have been fighting against. Where males are being made to feel lesser than just for being males.

Not All Men!

Some, if not all, of those boys, were left feeling confused. It was not explained clearly WHAT they were standing up and apologising for:

“Danielle Shephard told 7NEWS that her 12-year-old son, who is in Year 7 at the school, was left feeling confused following the exercise.

“He 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,” she said.”

Rather than making them feel guilty for crimes they have not even committed, let’s focus on creating a stronger, more resilient and respectful generation. Help our children grow into the people we want them to be.

Teach girls that it is ok to say no. Teach them how to say it clear and loud, with words and body language.

Teach our boys how to pick up on non-verbal clues of no as well as listening when told no.

Teach both boys and girls to respect each other, and treat each other as equals.

We cannot create equality through inequality.

Whilst I acknowledge that women have long been considered “lesser than”, we cannot raise ourselves above males. It will perpetuate a vicious cycle. We must learn to treat everyone equally, regardless of gender, race, sexual orientation or skin colour. People are people.

I don’t want my son growing up in a society that teaches him he has something to apologise for or be ashamed of because he was born male. I want him to be taught and shown that everyone is equal. To treat everyone with the same respect.

And I don’t want my daughter bought up in a society that teaches her she can treat males as less than her.

At the end of the day, what will this achieve?

Males will end up being “inferior”, and females superior. The reverse of what we have been fighting against for so long. So what is the point?

People are people. Let’s make it so.

Rachel Maree is a writer, mum and registered nurse. Bringing you the real truth to parenting, nursing and writing (even when it is downright ugly). You can read more articles or hire her to write amazing content for you — Rachel Maree.

To grab your free essential ebook “Best Tips To Create Compelling Content” sign up here.

If you want to make sure you NEVER miss a great Medium story (by me or the other amazing writers here) sign up here. It’s $5 a month, and gives you unlimited access to Medium.

Full disclosure, when you sign up using this link I get a small kick-back from Medium. Hopefully enough for that cup of coffee I desperately need! ☕🤞