A group of Wollongong High School of the Performing Arts students fear their impassioned plea to save a student support officer’s job has fallen on deaf ears.
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In October the group handed a petition signed by over 600 students calling on WHSPA to renew the contract of Michelle Montgomery, who students say have ‘’helped them greatly with their mental health issues’’.
At the time the Mercury also reported that letters of support written by ‘’concerned parents and students’’ were also handed to school principal Paul Ryan.
A Department of Education spokesperson responded at the time and said the school had yet to make a decision about Ms Montgomery’s temporary contract position for 2018.
But a ‘’concerned member of the school community’’ believes Ms Montgomery has already been told her contract would not be renewed for 2018.
Staff have been lied to, silenced and threatened. Students have been ignored and bullied. Is this the way we deal with mental health issues at our school?
- Letter
In a letter written to the Mercury this week, the writer also suggests staff were threatened with a formal warning if they showed any support for keeping Ms Montgomery at the school.
‘’Staff have been lied to, silenced and threatened. Students have been ignored and bullied. Is this the way we deal with mental health issues at our school?’’ the writer wrote.
The letter goes on to say that students are not only being ignored, they are being bullied by some senior staff for taking a stand.
‘’These are students with mental health issues that we are talking about,’’ the letter says.
The letter also claims ‘’reasonable comments’’ made by students on the school’s Facebook page requesting that the school spend money on keeping Ms Montgomery instead of hiring separate psychologists for school courses, were deleted from the page.
‘’What happened to freedom of speech? This Facebook page is left open for comments, so why delete them? The comments weren’t rude, derogatory or even accusative. What are they hiding?’’
A Department of Education spokesperson said the school refutes the claims made by students.
‘’The statement issued by the Department of Education in October is correct,’’ the spokesperson said. ‘’All temporary engagements cease at the end of each school year. Offers have not been made for temporary employment of school learning support officers at the school for 2018 at this point. WHSPA has established a Wellbeing Hub to support student wellbeing.’’
The letter writer did not want their name mentioned as ‘’Wollongong High seems to target people that speak out about this issue, and I do not want to be another target of their targets’’. ‘’They implement this hub but then they terminate Michelle Montgomery, who is the person that helps the students the most with their mental health issues.’’