Golden Grove High School’s tumultuous 2022 laid bare
The start of the year was set to be a new and exciting time at Golden Grove High, but a bizarre “gender neutral” toilet was just the start of an alarming downward spiral.
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The start of the year was set to be a new and exciting time at Golden Grove High – here’s how things went downhill.
May 12, 2022
Principal Peter Kuss sent correspondence to parents and caregivers notifying them the school would be removing toilet doors on some of its older cubicles to align them with new gender neutral loos.
May 20, 2022
The door removal was questioned by a mother as she feared for the privacy of her children who were students. The Education Department said the toilets did not infringe on the privacy of students. Photos provided to The Advertiser showed toilet stalls were exposed to hallway thoroughfares.
May 26, 2022
Six days later Education Department chief executive Martin Westwell contradicted the school principal and said the doors were actually removed to stop a TikTok trend of vandalism in the toilets. The doors were not returned. Students revolt, allegedly burning toilet paper in the stalls and forcing the smoke alarm to go off.
May 27, 2022
The Department backflips, agreeing the toilets are an invasion of privacy. It orders the school to put the doors back on. They are not put back on and instead the following day half of them are reinstalled. The male toilet doors are left off. They are still off.
June 23, 2022
The school is yet again embroiled in controversy, this time with TikTok playing a major role. A series of vile videos are made by accounts using the school’s insignia and rating females from the school. Parents tell The Advertiser they are removing their children from the school as a result of online and at-school bullying. Principal Kuss addresses the issue to parents, saying the videos are being investigated and removed. Education Minister Blair Boyer blames TikTok for allowing the trend to continue, says he has “demanded” the social media giant remove the videos.
June 24, 2022
A Mum tells The Advertiser of her daughter’s diminishing confidence and happiness after she appears in a “biggest sl***” list. SA Police are contacted by The Advertiser, but say they are unable to investigate cyber bullying unless it is “substantive”.
September 29, 2022
After months of quiet, the school is rocked as a series of videos in which students from the school are involved in violent attacks. In one video a Year 7 boy is seen cowering in the corner of a school toilet cubicle as a Year 9 student unleashes a barrage of hits to his head and upper body. Another video shows a small female teacher trying to break up a brawl between two large male students. One of the students pushes the teacher. It is understood one of the students ends the fight with a broken nose.
Premier Peter Malinauskas and Mr Boyer call in the cavalry, vowing to introduce security guards to the school from term four and getting an experienced former principal to assist with the running of the school.
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