Proposed Yipirinya boarding house saga prompts principal to take legal action against federal MP
A stoush between Lingiari MP Marion Scrymgour and an Alice Springs school principal has forced her to pay thousands in legal fees after he threatened to sue for defamation.
Alice Springs
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Lingiari MP Marion Scrymgour has apologised to the principal of an Alice Springs school and will pay thousands in legal costs after sending a letter accusing him of “direct threatening behaviour” toward her and aggressive, late-night, drunken phone calls.
Tensions grew between the federal Labor MP and Yipirinya School principal Gavin Morris as the school’s funding bid for a $12m boarding house was repeatedly drawn into political stoushes over youth crime.
Yipirinya is an independent, community-controlled school whose 300 Indigenous students live in Alice Springs and surrounding communities.
Dr Morris has said the proposed boarding school would help meet a desperate need to keep children off the streets – a call strongly backed by Country Liberal Senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price, whose mother Bess Nungarrayi Price is an assistant principal at the school.
In her August 18 letter, sent to the school board and several politicians, Ms Scrymgour said she was considering registering a complaint against Dr Morris with the teacher’s board and refused to have “any further communication or involvement” with him.
She said his behaviour had become “increasingly concerning” and twice he had “phoned me late at night and spoken aggressively to me with slurred speech”.
“I have had enough meetings with Principal Morris during business hours to be able to tell the difference between the way he spoke to me in those two phone calls and how he usually speaks,” she said.
“In one of the phone calls he was swearing and in the morning he phoned me to apologise.”
Dr Morris said he felt “deeply hurt” by the letter, calling it an “outrageous abuse of power” that had shaken the school community.
“To get threats to my livelihood because I’m advocating for the most disadvantaged children in our society, I was totally blindsided by an attack from our federal member,” he said.
“Our board feels damaged and intimidated, I feel I’ve had my reputation tarnished … it’s been eight weeks and the erosion of trust it’s created, the rumour mongering – it will take the Yipirinya community a while to recover.”
Ms Scrymgour said while she still had concerns about the after-hours phone calls, she “unreservedly” withdrew her other statements about Dr Morris after he threatened to sue for defamation.
She also stood by the substantive message in her four-page letter, in which she laid out concerns Yipirinya was being weaponised politically and expressed willingness to meet with Yipirinya’s Aboriginal school council directly about future plans for the school.
Ms Scrymgour said she could support “an integrated, evidence-based proposal” in line with her understanding of the school Elders’ position; that the proposed boarding cottages would support cultural maintenance, and social and educational outcomes for enrolled students – not necessarily as a crisis centre for children on the streets of Alice Springs to be brought to.
In a follow up letter to the school council last month Ms Scrymgour reiterated her “strong support” for their vision and asked for more details, such as the school’s plan to care for children with foetal alcohol spectrum disorders in a boarding setting.
Federal Education Minister Jason Clare – one of the politicians CC’d in Ms Scrymgour’s August 18 letter – is currently undertaking a review of boarding school needs in Central Australia, with the Yipirinya School accommodation plan one of a number being considered.
Dr Morris said he was keen to maintain a working relationship with Ms Scrymgour and “the olive branch is extended”.
The Yipirinya school board gave its full support to Dr Morris.
“We were all taken aback, it was a personal attack towards Gavin,” public officer Sherry Lowah said.
“The school’s come a long way since Gavin’s been here, everything’s changed rapidly – more engagement with community, the cultural side of things has come to life, they feel connected for once and we’re all being included.”
Ms Scrymgour said her position had been misrepresented in relation to establishing an emergency safe space for Alice Springs children in crisis and she would welcome the findings of the federal review.
“This is not a ‘rival plan’ intended to take the place of the establishment or enhancement of boarding school accommodation in Alice Springs,” she said.
Ms Scrymgour estimated she paid $4000 in Dr Morris’ legal fees.
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