More than 200 students from Edmund Rice College gave themselves a voluntary lunchtime detention on Thursday to highlight the plight of children in immigration detention centres around Australia.
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The students joined other schools across Australia in Detention4Detention, part of the Catholic Alliance for People Seeking Asylum’s national day of prayer and action.
Year 12 organisers Justice-Noah Negro-Malfitano and Riley Hall said it was the third time they had run Detention4Detention with increasing numbers of students giving up lunchtime to take part.
“The school tries to instil in us values of justice, solidarity, dignity and compassion,” Riley said. “This is 100 per cent voluntary and we tell students that if they are passionate and believe in it, then come and join us.”
Justice-Noah said the aim was to create a better understanding of children who are in detention. “We are all stronger together, and as the younger generation we are the future leaders and we need to start to make a difference,” he said.
