The King David School proud of it inclusiveness
Melbourne’s The King David School has tendered its submission to the Senate Legal and Constitutional Affairs Committee’s enquiry into allowing faith-based educational institutions to discriminate on the basis of gender identity, sexual orientation or other protected attributes.
Marc Light
Prinicpal Marc Light wrote that the school “rejects the notion of discriminating against staff, parents or students on the basis of their gender identity, sexual orientation or other protected attributes.”
He wrote:,”The King David School is a progressive Jewish school that was founded on the values of inclusion, egalitarianism and social justice.
Our school has a proud history of supporting those members of our community who identify as LGBTQI+. It is a shameful fact that on top of the myriad challenges faced by those who identify as LGBTIQ+ they are subjected to community messaging that can make them feel alienated, excluded and rejected.
We proudly support our students to embrace their Jewish identity and we believe that this is best done in a warm, open-minded and diverse setting that avoids discrimination wherever possible.
We believe that the language, symbolism and outcome of a potential expansion of discriminatory provisions that would allow for exclusions under the Sex Discrimination Act 1984 could do untold damage to members of our school community.
I urge the Committee to reject an expansion of discriminatory provisions and to recommend the removal of exclusions that could be relied upon to discriminate against students and staff in Australian schools.”
The subsmission follows the one from Melbourne’s Bialik College which shared similar sentiments.
This is genuine leadership.