School captains should be barred if sexually active or gay says Presbyterian Church

Students who are actively gay or having unmarried straight sex should not hold school leadership positions, the church which runs some of NSW’s most prestigious schools has told a discrimination review.

Students who are actively gay or having unmarried straight sex should not hold school leadership positions, the church which runs some of NSW’s most prestigious schools has told a discrimination review.

The Presbyterian Church, which operates six schools in NSW, including the elite Presbyterian Ladies’ College at Croydon and The Scots College at Bellevue Hill, expressed the views in a submission to the Australian Law Reform Commission about religious discrimination laws.

The church’s statement said students who are “in an active same-sex relationship” or a “sexually active unmarried heterosexual relationship” would “not be able to give appropriate Christian leadership in a Christian school which requires modelling of Christian living”.

“In both cases, the proposal removes from schools the ability to determine an ethos by selecting appropriate leaders,” the church submitted.

The heads of the Presbyterian, Catholic, Jewish, Islamic and Seventh-Day Adventist faiths have all made submissions supporting the right of religious schools to discriminate against students and staff on the basis of sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, marital or relationship status or pregnancy.

The exclusive girls school PLC Croydon, one of six run by the Presbyterian Church in NSW. Picture: John Appleyard

PLC principal Dr Paul Burgis said his school had never been asked by the Presbyterian church to ask captains about sexual activity or orientation.

“When selecting school captains PLC Sydney asks no questions about student sexual activity or orientation,” he said.

Exclusive Scots College at Bellevue Hill, one of six schools run by the Presbyterian Church.

“No one at the church has ever asked us to do so. Student and staff votes determine the five students who are interviewed for senior leadership positions.”

Scotts College was unable to comment due to the principal being away during school holidays.

The commission has asked for comment on proposed changes to federal laws pushed by the Albanese government to wind back the right of religious schools to discriminate on faith grounds.

The Australian Law Reform Commission had put forward a scenario that under changed laws a school could no longer refuse to accept as school captain an elected or appointed LGBTQA+ student.

In response, the evangelical Australian Christian Churches organisation also echoed the Presbyterian position, saying that in faith-based schools, clearly established beliefs are in place and accepted by guardians before children enrolled.

“The issue here is whether a student who has decided to announce and celebrate their LGBTIQA+ orientation can be held up by the school as school captains usually are, as an ‘example and role model’ to other students, when to do so is contrary to the religious teachings that underpin all the school’s activities,” Pastor Mark Edwards wrote.

“Those teachings and boundaries are made clear to students and families before enrolling and are accepted as a condition of enrolment.

“It is not unreasonable to expect that agreement to be honoured.”

Retired Shore headmaster Dr Timothy Wright told the ALRC that to take away the right of schools to preference employment would be an “abuse of established freedoms and in conscience many school leaders would feel duty bound to ignore the legal situation”.

“If I were still in authority I would,” Dr Wright said.

Equality Australia’s legal director Ghassan Kassisieh said the idea that gay students or a child in a sexual relationship could not be captains “belongs in the 1950s”.