The teachers who tore down Black Lives Matter posters in two New Zealand schools were “wrong” to do so, says an education expert.
Teachers from both Marist College in Auckland and St Andrews College in Christchurch are the subject of separate investigations following student claims that they tore down Black Lives Matter posters put up at school.
AUT professor Welby Ings says their actions fundamentally go against what education should be doing in New Zealand.
He says those teachers are a “tiny minority”.
“Hundreds and hundreds of teachers every day are involving kids in rich discourses and I actually think, if the issue was there was a view put up in the school, then it's wrong to take it down.
“It’s wrong. You’re trying to do the opposite. You’re trying to grow breadth of knowledge, breadth of thinking.”
It was announced last week the Catholic Diocese of Auckland would meet with Marist College families after teachers had torn down Black Lives Matter posters at the school.
Meanwhile, St Andrews is now investigating claims made by students that a female staff member had ripped the posters down and stamped on them while swearing at Year 13 students.
Mr Ings says teachers should not be silencing a student's right to enter into social discourse.
“When kids bring in issues to school - whether it's global warming, whether it's 'are school uniforms fair?', whether it's Black Lives Matter - they’re nominating stuff that they want to work through to become citizens in the world,” says Mr Ings.
“I think it's our job to do two things - to show them how to be rational and compassionate, so those two things together.”
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