13 February 2007

Action needed against schools flouting corporal punishment law

Green Party MP Sue Bradford today called on Education Minister Steve Maharey to take action to protect children who attend schools that continue to impose corporal punishment on children, in defiance of the law.

Ms Bradford was commenting on reports that Wainuiomata Christian College continues to impose corporal punishment, with the approval of parents.

"I wrote to Steve Maharey six months ago concerning the corporal punishment policy at Tyndale Park Christian School and other private schools, and he replied that the ministry would both be taking up the matter with the NZ Association of Christian Schools, and taking steps to clarify the law on this subject.

"Nothing has happened, judging by the Wainuiomata Christian College case.This school - and others like it around the country - is apparently continuing to defy a law that was passed 20 years ago in New Zealand.

"Just because there is parental approval doesn't make it alright. Until recent decades, if husbands wanted to beat their wives that was also thought to be alright by some people, who felt the law had no place intruding on violence committed in the home. Would we want to go back to that situation? Of course not. .

"The law banning corporal punishment in New Zealand schools exists to protect children. School is supposed to be a safe place, where children are able to learn, free from the threat of violence.

"I call on the Minister to take immediate action to enforce the law, and not let such practices continue to slip on by. Times have changed, and violence against the vulnerable is no longer to be tolerated on dubious Scriptural grounds, or on any other basis.".

ENDS

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