By Brendan Rees
Outspoken parents have slammed the controversial Safe Schools program for “messing with our children’s identity,” during a Casey Council backed forum held at Bunjil Place on Thursday 19 April.
In blistering speeches in front of more than 200 people, three mothers and a spokesperson for the Family Council of Victoria spoke of their opposition to the State Government-funded program which aims to promote inclusiveness for “same-sex attracted, intersex and gender diverse” students.
It was “grooming” children and left parents “feeling powerless” and with a “serious loss of rights,” speakers claimed.
The forum, which was chaired by Casey councillors Rosalie Crestani and Susan Serey, came after it was scrapped and then reinstated minutes later during a heated Casey Council meeting on 17 April.
One of the original panellists, leading psychologist Dr Michael Carr-Gregg dropped out after publically labelling it a “brain-washing exercise.”
Minister for Education James Merlino said Casey Council seemed to focus on playing “political games.”
“It is a sad reality that LGBTI young people are more likely to be bullied at school than elsewhere.
“Safe Schools is part of a broad range of anti-bullying measures available in our schools. It is extremely disappointing that Casey council would try and portray it in any other light,” he said.
Two petitions were distributed to attendees seeking that the Safe Schools program to be stopped – this was not endorsed by Casey Council.
Mother Cella White spoke at the forum, saying parents often told her they were “too scared” to approach their school as they didn’t want their children “being made a target.”
Some parents weren’t even aware of the program being delivered at their schools, she said.
During her speech, she said parents had told her: “When safe school staff came to visit at school assembly it was heavily implied that if the students didn’t take part in Wear It Purple Day (an LGBT awareness day) they were partly responsible for homosexual deaths in Africa.”
Speaker Marzena Smalec said her teenage son was a “very happy boy” until she claims showed disturbing animated gay sexual activity was shown to students at Cranbourne East Secondary College.
“His spirituality was broken; his persona was broken. He was coming home and telling me that he no longer wants to go to school,” she said.
Another speaker was mother Marijke Ranci who said the program encouraged “gender-bending.”
“This is a horrible thing to do to children, horrible. This is about fighting back against cultural Marxism and communism which is right on our doorstep.”
Spokesperson for the Family Council of Victoria Bill Muehlenberg said the program would increase gender dysphoria in children, where someone’s biological sex doesn’t align with their gender identity.
“The simple solution is leave the body alone and deal with any mental psychological problems. That’s where we need to help our young people,” he said.
One teacher, who asked to remain anonymous, said she was disappointed the forum’s panel was “very one-sided.”
She said she was “fully supportive” of the program, saying her school, which she wished not to reveal, was delivering the Safe Schools program and only ever had one complaint about children transgendering.
“Parents find our school very open and honest. We don’t have a lot of bullying, we don’t have a lot of harassment; our kids tend to accept other kids for who they are,” she said.
Liberal Member for Narre Warren North Vikki Fitzgerald said the program was “wasting crucial class time with explicit sexualised content.”
“We need to clear the ideological clutter from the curriculum and get the focus back to where it belongs,” she said.
Victorian director of the Australian Christian Lobby Dan Flynn also called on the State Government to scrap the “Marxist cultural program” which “imposed gender fluidity ideology” on children.
