Cambridge High : It's still not too late for a rethink

[Brian]

http://www.stuff.co.nz/inl/index/0,1008,1213417a1905,FF.html

Waikato Times
May 25, 2002

It's still not too late for a rethink, Cambridge High
Denise Irvine

My old school, Cambridge High, is in the gun again on a discipline
issue, this time over the boner essay written by fourth former Mike
Scherger, writes Denise Irvine.

The school has stirred up controversy with its tough punishment of
15-year-old Mike after he wrote an English assignment about a boy who
got an erection at an inopportune moment.

For his efforts, Mike earned a maximum five-day stand-down;
stand-downs are generally for continual disobedience or physical
assault on other students and five days is the longest time allowed.
Mike got the same punishment he might have if he'd bullied another
kid.

There seems a certain irony in this: the school which in the early
1960s was hailed for its vision when it outlawed corporal punishment
years ahead of many others, has for the past fortnight been the
subject of widespread criticism and ridicule over its treatment of
Mike.

Letters to this newspaper saying things like "I'm glad none of my
children has had the misfortune to attend Cambridge High..." still
have the ability to make me wince, still evoke past loyalties decades
after I attended a school I remember being run with good humour and
goodwill.

On the one hand, I want to leap to my alma mater's defence and say to
critics "hang on a minute, there must be lots of good things happening
there as well". On the other hand, I want to join the chorus of
disapproval and say to the school "are you listening to your community
on this, are you sure you are reading it accurately and serving it
well?"

Because a school, in my view, exists to serve its community, not the
other way round. It should not set itself above or against its town
but work alongside it, reflecting local values and concerns.

The school might argue that it listens to public opinion through its
board of trustees, the elected representatives of parents.

But there's more to it than that. It takes a strong and confident
board member to stick their neck out, to speak against a school
principal. Also, a school's community is much wider than its current
pupils, parents and staff. In a small place like Cambridge it includes
old pupils, potential pupils, potential employers and many others with
a vested interest. It is, after all, the only secondary school in
town.

Cambridge High is out of step in the case of Mike Scherger – and the
casualties include the good name of the school; Mike, whose schooling
has been disrupted; and his parents Heather and Peter who feel they
have not had a fair hearing. Stung by the severity of their son's
punishment, the Schergers have talked to the media, drawn public
support, and this week the issue escalated when they put up posters to
publicise a town hall meeting last night.

This has caused further division: the school board, upset by the
publicity, claimed "trial by media", and principal Alison Annan has
declined to comment apart from an initial interview, then a written
statement saying she, the board and senior staff would not be at the
meeting.

But "trial by media" is a red herring, a lame excuse if it is being
used as a reason for the school not to try and resolve this. After
all, both parties surely want the same thing: the best possible
education for Mike.

ON THE day the story broke, Alison Annan described the Betrayal by
Body essay Mike wrote as "sexually offensive" and "totally
inappropriate". You could have been forgiven at that stage for
thinking it must have been straight out of Penthouse magazine, or
fresh off an internet porn site.

In truth, Mike's essay is a harmless piece, with the odd spelling
mistake indicating it may have been dashed off pretty rapidly. It is
certainly no prizewinner, nor did it deserve such condemnation. It was
probably best summed up by a colleague of mine who was heard to
exclaim when she read it: "Is that all!"

I don't think any of those who have spoken up on Mike Scherger's
behalf want to glorify him, and no one is arguing with the school's
right to discipline its pupils. But Cambridge High has taken a
sledgehammer to drive a tack, has meted out the maximum for something
that at minimum should have been dealt with in class by the teacher
who set the essay topic, or by her head of department.

There were many other ways of letting Mike know he'd pushed the
limits; the public stand-off is entirely unnecessary. It should never
have come to this. But Cambridge High has a reputation for not backing
down on discipline issues, as in its uncompromising stand on the group
of students suspended indefinitely for cannabis use in 1996.

Now would be a good time for the school to show it is not totally
intractable – to have a rethink and remove the stand-down from Mike's
record as his parents have asked.

Such a move would show the school was listening to its community. And
think of what Cambridge kids would learn from a school big enough to
admit that it can occasionally make a mistake.