Court bid to stop Newington going co-ed fails as judge declares term ‘youth' is gender neutral
A student from a $40,000-a-year private school in Sydney has lost his battle to keep girls out of the school, with a legal challenge against the decision to go co-ed failing.
The student, who remains anonymous and was only known as student A, had challenged the transition in the NSW supreme court on the basis that a trust deed written for Sydney's Newington college in 1873 stated the school was set up to educate 'youth'. They argued at the time the term referred to boys.
But in his decision on Wednesday, justice Guy Parker concluded the 'word youth in the 1873 trustee was used in a gender neutral sense and does not mandate males only at the college'.
The student would be ordered to pay legal costs with the total yet to be determinedm, the court heard.
The November 2023 announcement by the Newington college council that the school would become coeducational led to furious opposition from some parents and alumni.
One 'old boy' protesting outside the school cried when he told a reporter: 'I'm an old boy of the school, my son is also an old boy, and the intention was always that I'd have a grandson. But I won't bring him to a co-ed school.'
Last year, Guardian Australia revealed Newington old boy and Sydney barrister Dallas Morgan had sent an impassioned email to alumni detailing his plans to fly to Tonga to lobby King Tupou VI – whose father was an alumni – on the issue.
In the email, Dallas lamented that 'transgender midgets' could have their fees subsidised. He said old boys wanted a voice against 'the evil empire of woke mumbo jumbo'.
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