Wear It Purple Day dissenters ‘must not feel ostracised’

Principals taking part in Wear it Purple Day have been told to ensure pupils who opt out do not feel ostracised.

NSW Education Minister Rob Stokes. Picture: AAP

Principals at schools taking part in tomorrow’s Wear it Purple Day to celebrate tolerance and diversity have been warned to ensure students who choose to opt out do not feel ostracised.

NSW Education Minister Rob Stokes said a clear message had been sent to principals that they must be “very careful, particularly in the context of the marriage equality plebiscite’’. “This is a highly political issue at the moment, and so school communities are to be safe for everybody including those who might have a differing view,” he told 2GB’s Ray Hadley yesterday.

Wear it Purple Day is a student-led, not-for-profit body that encourages students to wear purple to “foster supportive, safe and accepting environments for rainbow young people’’ and support the gay and lesbian community.

Mr Stokes said “principals who choose to participate in these sorts of events need to be very careful where there are students who don’t want to participate for personal reasons or religious, that they are not (made) to feel any pressure to conform’’.

This week parents at exclusive Sydney girls school Kambala in Rose Bay expressed anger when unauthorised posters for a “wear it rainbow’’ event went up at the school and had to be taken down. Principal Shane Hogan said the school would celebrate Wear it Purple Day and the “values being promoted are in line with the Christian ethos of the school”.