Motueka High School has risen above the minor controversies that occurred during its Pride Week celebrations last month, with the school standing strong in its commitment to upholding diversity.
In recent years, the school has acknowledged Pride Week - this year 17 to 21 June - by displaying the rainbow flag on the school’s flagpole.
Senior sergeant Martin Tunley says that on the morning of Tuesday, 18 June, a 72-year-old local man took exception to the high school flying the rainbow flag and entered school grounds to remove it.
The man got the flag to ground level, and then had no way to sever the cable ties that held it in place. School staff asked him to leave, and he refused to do so. Police were eventually called, and the man accompanied them without resistance. No charges were laid, but the man was trespassed from the school.
Another member of the community created a social media post that expressed support for the man’s actions, illustrating her words with a photo of a shredded rainbow flag, which was an image sourced from a 2023 American news story. The post drew comment both supporting and condemning the sentiments.
Acting principal Karen Wells says that the school is currently focusing on the strategic aims of wellbeing, identity and equity, and Pride Week is an important part of all of those things.
“It is unfortunate that we are a long way from everyone to being open about that.”
She says that the message to the community was the same one that she offered to the junior students in an assembly in the lead-up to Pride Week - people could believe what they wanted, but they should practice tolerance.
“We’re not asking you to change your belief system, but acceptance would be lovely, and tolerance is the bottom line.”
The school’s diversity officer, student Daniel Cederman, says that Pride Week is used to celebrate the diversity of their school.
A recent project of the team was to organise a mural that is to be displayed in a shared meeting space known informally as ‘The Shed’, which stands beside Te Whare Pora. This translates as ‘the house of weaving’, but also describes a state of mind that is ready to receive knowledge.
The mural has been designed by 15-year-old Jeni Howells and shows a range of interpretations of what diversity might look like within a community, accompanied with the words, “There is room for all of us in this world”.
Jeni says that she wanted to leave her mark on the school and so jumped at the chance to create the mural.
“I have some native American roots, so doing a diversity artwork was right up my alley.”
Jeni and Daniel, together with a team of others, will begin outlining the mural this week, with the full artwork to be completed next term.
