Latest news with #CatholicSchool
ABC News
4 days ago
- General
- ABC News
Jumping the gun
And now to a storm of indignation yes another one over on Sky News: RITA PANAHI: … a 13-year-old transgender student, that is a male who claims to be female, has prompted outrage from parents at a private Catholic School in South Australia after breaking a number of records by huge margins … - The Rita Panahi Show, Sky News Australia, 11 May 2025 A school athletics carnival in South Australia sparked a media frenzy three weeks ago: BEN FORDHAM: A male-born student has dominated a female school athletics competition, it's happened at a sports day at a Catholic school in South Australia. A 13-year-old student broke several records and won most of the events … - Ben Fordham Live, 2GB, 12 May 2025 A transgender child smashing records and robbing other kids of their chance at glory on the athletics field? Well it lit up the airwaves for days: PETA CREDLIN: Senator, you know, how on earth is this fair? LEAH BLYTH: It's a great question and something that I ask myself … - Credlin, Sky News Australia, 13 May 2025 The furore was sparked by a scoop from intrepid reporter Frank Chung and on the Monday morning the Adelaide Advertiser splashed it all over page one with the school sports day outrage spilling onto page five: … a transgender student broke a number of records competing against girls at a recent sports day … '... (they) were breaking all the girls' records,' said one father … - 10 May 2025 The story also published in The Daily Telegraph, The Courier-Mail and The Toowoomba Chronicle prompted a deluge from professional commentators like this little piece of compassion from former Liberal MP Gary Hardgrave: GARY HARDGRAVE: In the end, weak men want to compete against women. And they put on the skirt and say 'I'm a woman now' and I want to compete against you. But even weaker men support those people in that kind of decision. - Danica and James, Sky News Australia, 11 May 2025 The controversy dominated Adelaide radio all that day: DAVID PENBERTHY: … it's actually unfair on the boy who's now a girl or now says that they're a girl or whatever their status is. I actually think the parents of that child should have rethought the way they approach this. - Breakfast with David & Will, 5AA, 12 May 2025 Even the ABC considered it a legitimate story bringing on the South Australian Education Minister to answer some questions: JULES SCHILLER: Obviously, you know, the priority here is to protect, you know, a 13-year-old who's in a delicate situation, you would imagine. BLAIR BOYER: Yes, absolutely. JULES SCHILLER: But do you also accept if they are breaking records and they end up in the paper, then that doesn't seem to be, it seems to be putting them at risk … - Breakfast with Sonya Feldhoff and Jules Schiller, ABC Radio Adelaide, 12 May 2025 Five days later David Penberthy was back dipping into the outrage once more this time in the pages of The Australian: What should have been a happy, uncontroversial sports day at a Catholic school has become a flashpoint … The student broke longstanding girls' records … - The Weekend Australian, 17-18 May 2025 The child at the centre of the story was not identified by The Advertiser or The Australian. As you'll see however, that was the absolute limit of professional responsibility displayed by these publishers before they went to print because none of them even spoke with the child's family, which is something we did last week: No child or family should have to experience the trauma or fear that we have been through … my child's privacy and innocence has been violated without consideration or empathy for the devastating, lifelong harm this can cause. - Email, Mother of student, 30 May 2025 The mother of this 13-year-old child told us the media's impact on their lives has been profound: It's hard to express how horrific it is to read hateful articles about your child and have them used as clickbait for a political agenda created by adults and forced down the throats of kids who are just trying to be kids. - Email, Mother of student, 30 May 2025 And was the story even accurate? Answer, no. The media reported incorrect and exaggerated claims about my child, who only broke one and not multiple records in last year's school athletics carnival. It was another girl who broke seven records … - Email, Mother of student, 30 May 2025 That's right, the very premise of this story and all the subsequent outrage was wrong. This transgender girl did win some races but broke only one record in 2024 and one in 2025. There was however, another student who smashed seven records at the 2024 carnival who happened not to be transgender. The mother also told us that when she saw the article she called The Advertiser to have it pulled offline but the paper told her the story had already gone viral. One hour later the paper changed its mind and pulled the online item, which amounted to very little because it remained on other News Corp websites. Then when the mother got wind that David Penberthy was writing his update for The Australian she gave him a call too: I asked him not to publish his story. He said it had already been submitted but he offered to interview me for a follow up story. - Email, Mother of student, 30 May 2025 Now, I wonder what possible reason she had not to take up his generous offer. Penberthy insisted to Media Watch his was a legitimate story and said he had tried to address the mother's concerns by having comments disabled from his article. And as for why The Australian had failed to publish a correction? … until now I did not know that she wanted one. If she does want one I will take that up with the editors. - Email, David Penberthy, 30 May 2025 That's right, no corrections at The Australian without a formal application first! After we contacted News Corp however, published a correction and an apology and Sky News said it had removed its segments from the internet. There is a real and legitimate debate about transgender athletes competing in sport, but this had none of that legitimacy because at the heart of this error-riddled story was let's not forget a 13-year-old child whose family was never contacted but was rather trampled upon by a media stampede falling over itself to voice outrage. It was so irresponsible as to be breathtaking.
The Guardian
7 days ago
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
Madeleine Thien: ‘I ran in blizzards and -20C – all I wanted was to listen to Middlemarch'
My earliest reading memoryResting in my father's arms as he read the newspaper. I must have been three or four years old. He read the paper cover to cover, and for an hour or so each night, I watched the world go by. My favourite book growing upWhen I was 11 I would go to the library downtown and request microfilm of old newspapers. I clicked the spools into place and read and read. I was horrified and baffled and amazed that there existed so many decades, so much time, in which I was … nowhere and not yet. The book that changed me as a teenagerMy parents were educated in missionary schools in Hong Kong and Malaysia; in Vancouver, they enrolled me in a Catholic school. The religious texts and sermons that we read, and the things I saw around me, made me turn away from religion when I was a teenager; but those texts instilled in me a lasting relationship with philosophy. I left religion, but not its questions. The writer who changed my mindOmar El Akkad. I used to think that, sometimes, people are made speechless by the horror of events, by fear, by grief. Perhaps the words they need don't exist. But One Day, Everyone Will Have Been Against Us reminds us that the words are there. We have the language to describe ethnic cleansing and genocide. When journalists are murdered, when 183 children are killed in a single day, when 15 paramedics are executed, and we stay silent, words don't fail us – we fail our vocation and each other. The book that made me want to be a writerPlurality! It's really all of them, isn't it? Contending with one another across time. Reading is prismatic, and a great writer shows us how to read far beyond their own works. John Berger, Canisia Lubrin, Rawi Hage, Yan Lianke, Balam Rodrigo, Yōko Ogawa, Adania Shibli, Ma Jian, Italo Calvino, James Baldwin, Alexis Wright, Kafka, my beloved Proust … and on it goes. The book or author I came back toDuring the pandemic, I ran 10km up and down a mountain every other day while listening to Middlemarch. I ran in blizzards and -20C – all I wanted to do was listen. The book I rereadBohumil Hrabal's I Served the King of England. Hrabal's knowing, sorrowful, open-hearted, gleeful, broken genius. I love him as one loves a friend. The book I could never read againFor now but not forever, the work of a writer who shaped me, Alice Munro. Yet often I find myself thinking about the experience of reading her – this feeling that I knew the women in her stories, had lived among them, had loved them or fled them. The memory of reading, the imprint of the encounter, is a lifelong confrontation. The book I discovered later in lifeI read The Iliad when I was 15 but I feel as if I experienced it for the first time when I read Emily Watson's 2023 translation, which overflows with names and lives and which records the utter waste of war. Simone Weil's essay The Iliad, or the Poem of Force also changed me – her belief that, century after century, we've ignored or misunderstood or misrepresented what Homer was trying to tell us. Weil writes: 'Whatever is not war, whatever war destroys or threatens, The Iliad wraps in poetry; the realities of war, never.' The book I am currently readingÆdnan by Linnea Axelsson, and Ninth Building by Zou Jingzhi. Everyone read these infinitely wise and haunting books. The Book of Records is published by Granta. To support the Guardian, order your copy at Delivery charges may apply.
Yahoo
29-05-2025
- General
- Yahoo
St. Casimir's Catholic School graduating its last class on Sunday
May 28—WELLS — St. Casimir's Catholic School in Wells will leave behind a proud legacy for many in the Wells community after closing its doors last week at the end of 110 years of operation. The school opened in 1915 about 30 years after the start of the parish in Wells and was built by the members for the children of the families there. From 1919 — the year of the first graduation — through 2025, it will have graduated 1,629 students, said Teresa Chirpich, longtime office manager at the school. On Sunday, St. Casimir will have its final graduation Mass with the students from the school, before the students will go on next year to United South Central School, Alden-Conger School or St. Theodore Catholic School. A few will be homeschooled. "It's an ending, but on another hand, we know that we've prepared these kids to go out as best as we can, and that's a good feeling. ..." said Jinger Woodring, school administrator, who has worked at the school for 2 1/2 years. "We've had the last four months to say, 'All right, what are the most important things we want to leave with these kids and what do we want them to know about their faith,' and we could focus on that." While math and reading have been important, Woodring said they wanted to make sure that the students remembered their Catholic faith. She said they always emphasized a teaching from St. John Paul II that everyone is made in the likeness and image of God and encouraged the children to always try to see that in themselves and other people. The students attended Mass twice a week and every day had morning prayer and a morning meeting together. This year, there were 30 students at the school, though there have been as many as 120 at the height of the school, she said. When the school initially opened, nuns taught the students — first the Franciscan Sisters from Sylvania, Ohio, who lived in the upper floor and instructed students up through eighth grade. When high school grades were added in 1927, the nuns moved from the upper floor where they were living into a convent purchased by the church. Later, the School Sisters of Notre Dame from Mankato taught at the school, and in more recent years, teaching has been done by lay people. While the school has always been a mission of the church, she said in recent years it had become a lot financially. While she is sad to see the school close, she said she tries to look at it with a positive mindset. "We've been here 110 years," she said. "Not even some public schools can claim that. So many of them have closed down for larger numbers — they've closed down to have more kids." Chirpich, who started working at the school when her youngest son started kindergarten, said she is also choosing to look at it with a similar mindset. "One hundred ten years is pretty much a miracle," she said. "When all of the local public schools have had to consolidate to remain viable, and our church has supported us singly as one parish, one school for 110 years — that's pretty good. ... That's a long run." She said she will remember seeing how excited the students were to get off the bus on the first day of school each year and the excitement they carried with them throughout the rest of the school year. They have also been impressed with the bond the students have had with each other. "These kids are like brothers and sisters to each other," Woodring said. "They really have formed a solid bond that is really evident." While the students were not all in one classroom for their learning, they did many things together, including lunch, recess, studies and morning prayer. Woodring said there are a handful of multi-generational families who have attended the school, as well, including one that was in its fifth generation, that will be recognized on Sunday. While it's still to be seen what will happen to the school space, Chirpich said she is sure there will be parish activities there. "There will still be life here," Chirpich said.
Scoop
27-05-2025
- General
- Scoop
Kaikōura Schools Vow To Work Together Despite Funding Cut
Kaikōura schools say they will continue to work together despite cuts in Thursday's Budget. Seven teaching roles, plus teacher relievers, across the five Kaikōura schools will be impacted, with the Kāhui Ako (communities of learning) programme set to be axed in December. Kaikōura Kāhui Ako lead principal Judith Ford, of St Joseph's Catholic School, said the collaboration between the schools had helped to smooth the transition from primary to secondary school. ''The biggest implication for us, is we will need to put something else in place to make sure the collaboration continues across the district. ''It is nice for us in a small community to work together and get to know each other, otherwise schools can become silos.'' Education Minister Erica Stanford confirmed the Kāhui Ako scheme, which paid about 4000 teachers extra to lead improvements in groups of schools around the country, will be scrapped. The funding will be diverted help pay for more learning support co-ordinators and teacher aides. ''We have assessed underspends and reprioritised initiatives that are underperforming or lack clear evidence that they're delivering intended outcomes,'' Ms Stanford said. Ending the Kāhui Ako programme means teacher contracts will need to be paid out and principals will be left navigating staff surpluses. Kaikōura Primary School board of trustees presiding member Vicki Gulleford said the Kāhui Ako programme has been successful in bringing schools together. She said her school was set to lose its resource teacher of literacy, which was shared with the other Kaikōura schools. Mrs Ford said being part of Kāhui Ako had allowed teachers the opportunity for professional development which small schools would otherwise be unable to afford. The Kaikōura Kāhui Ako has begun working with local pre-schools to support the transition to primary school. A Ministry of Education spokesperson said by 2028 all year 1 to 8 schools will have access to a learning support co-ordinator at ratio of one to every 500 students. Kaikōura has one learning support co-ordinator which is shared between the schools, with the four primary schools having between 20 and 130 students. Kāhui Ako were established in 2014 and involved local preschools, primary and secondary schools working together. There are 220 Kāhui Ako around the country, comprising nearly 2000 schools and around 1500 early learning centres. The Kaikōura Kāhui Ako brings together Kaikōura High School, Kaikōura Primary School, Kaikōura Suburban School, Hāpuku School and St Joseph's Catholic School. LDR is local body journalism co-funded by RNZ and NZ On Air.
CNN
22-05-2025
- Politics
- CNN
Supreme Court deadlock leaves in place ruling blocking nation's first religious charter school
The Supreme Court split evenly Thursday in a high-profile challenge over the nation's first religious charter school, leaving in place a ruling from Oklahoma's top court that found the proposed Catholic school unconstitutional. The 4-4 split was made possible because conservative Justice Amy Coney Barrett recused herself from the case. Though she did not explain her decision, the former University of Notre Dame law professor had multiple ties to the attorneys representing the St. Isidore of Seville Catholic Virtual School. This story is breaking and will be updated.
