http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/no-room-for-girlfriends-at-ivanhoe-girls-dance...

A few weeks earlier, a teacher had told the year 11 student she wasn't allowed to attend the Preston dinner dance with her 15-year-old girlfriend, Savannah Supski. She was asked to bring a male instead.

''It made me very upset. I thought it was unfair so I didn't go,'' she said.

''I put a lot of effort into trying to fix things. I had a meeting with principals, looked through the Equal Opportunity Act, all my friends put posters up around the school and the teachers ripped them down. There was an easy solution; they just needed to let me go with my girlfriend.''

Hannah's father, Peter Williams, lodged a complaint with the Equal Opportunities Commission, alleging the school had discriminated against his daughter because of her sexual orientation.

''The school kept saying because it is an all-girls' school we want to make an event where they can meet boys in a social scenario,'' he said. ''That process is anachronistic and creates feelings of discrimination among girls who are same-sex attracted.''

After lodging the complaint in September, Mr Williams had a mediation session with the school, but the two parties were unable to reach a conclusion.

The Williams family did not take matters further because it was becoming too stressful for their teenage daughter, who will complete her VCE next year.

Mr Williams said the experience had forced his daughter to move to Swinburne Senior Secondary College, a ''more accepting'' school in Hawthorn.

''We made the decision that the best thing to do was to leave the school. The basis has been the whole sense of institutionalised discrimination,'' he said.

''They had a clear idea of why they ran the event, but the world has moved on. It's not the greatest time in someone's educational life to move schools.''

Savannah, now 16, is also moving schools to be with her girlfriend and was happy to hear that Swinburne Secondary College allows same-sex couples to attend formals together.

''I have been not very happy with private schools all my life and this was pushing it. It was a homophobic issue and I feel extremely discriminated against at the old school,'' she said.

Sian Supski supports her daughter's decision to leave the school.

''The idea that there had to be a gender balance at the dinner dance seemed to be discriminatory. It was a very difficult time for Savannah but she's an amazingly strong young person and we are very proud of her.''

Mrs Supski said she was disappointed Ivanhoe Girls' Grammar did not adopt a more progressive approach to same-sex couples. ''It would have been a good thing for other girls who might be in a same-sex relationship and don't feel brave enough to come out, tell their parents and be in a school situation.''

Ivanhoe Girls' Grammar principal Heather Schnagl said the event did not discriminate against same-sex couples and was designed to promote a co-educational experience.

''I don't think it's appropriate they feel discriminated against, and I'm very upset they feel that,'' she said.

''If we opened it up and said girls could bring another female they would all bring females; the policy is trying to create an event where boys are invited. We are a school that has an all-girls environment, and they are meant to invite guests, not partners.''

Dr Schnagl said the event was under review for next year.

She said the students' ages had also been an issue. ''It's an event for year 11s and the student's guest was in year 10.''

Hannah said her classmates had taken younger males to the event and she was the only student asked to provide the age of her partner. ''They kept on making up excuses, and said everything was a problem for me.''

Roz Ward, co-ordinator of the Safe Schools Coalition, unveiled by the state government last month to tackle homophobia in schools, said the incident was a blatant example of discrimination.

''It's a big issue for schools to be visibly supportive of same-sex couples and one of the most visible events of the year is the school formal or dinner dance. One of the six recommendations we make to schools is to allow students to take their same-sex partners or friends to their school formal and they should make it obvious that is the case,'' Ms Ward said.

The Equal Opportunity Commission said it could not comment on the case.

HigherBeam wrote on Nov 11^th, 2010 at 6:44am:



HO HUM

nichy wrote on Nov 11^th, 2010 at 6:55am:


Year 11 and 12 MALES often take their younger female partners to school formals - some girls end up going to 4 formals in their high school life.  I've never heard anything said about that.

This issue comes up every year at formal time - and it's generally the religious schools that won't allow it.  Some say "well, send your child to a religious school, suck it up" - that misses the point that these schools get government funding - in fact they often get MORE per pupil than state schools! 

I believe it's discriminatory and schools should not be allowed to discriminate against our kids based on their sexual orientation.

HigherBeam wrote on Nov 11^th, 2010 at 6:44am:



What a crock of pedantic pissantry.
YAWWWWWWWWWWN.!!!

I saw these two little creeps on ACA last night, total waste of oxygen, the pair of them. Good thing they`re lesbians, don`t need trash like them breeding.

I don't believe in Homosexuality and as Imp once put it, next we'll be 'forced' to accept Moneghan and his Dog along with all the other Beastiality marriages. Remember the guy in the States who got the Ho-down with a Horse, sent to gaol and then release, went back to the same horse ...because it was 'love'.

If anyone KNOWS the CO-EDUCATIONAL system, then you would know that after spending most of the time next to a girl in class 'studying/working' together - come 'Dancing' time or 'social' time, the boys and girls keep VERY seperate. I even say a female 'school captain' get in trouble and abused by teachers because she refused to get up and dance with one of us very reluctant boys.

Go to a night club. The Co-Eds will be in their boy and girl groups while the teenagers who went to Single-Sex schools were on the dance floor with the opposite sex ...you could almost see a Nun there with a ruler between them making sure there was ample room for modesty, etc.

Not only is all this 'Homosexuality equality and rights' emerging from a Nation that has too much FREEDOM on its hands, but we are ignoring the act of Celibacy and the greater sacrifice it takes.

I think the issue is that people just don't wanna face facts and draw a line. Religion seems an easy target to 'attack' by Gays because it doesn't promote Homosexuals.

...I've also noticed that the regular female contributers on this Forum don't appear as often now, since the Homosexual Threads showed that the majority of Males dissagree with the Gay thing. (like der!)

It_is_the_Darkness wrote on Nov 11^th, 2010 at 9:09am:

Noone will accept beastiality - animals can't even consent. Not to mention everyone finds it disgusting.

Quote:

This is not true. I went to a co-ed school and everyone was dancing with everyone at my formal. Of course, when it was dancing lessons as part of PE in front of the teachers, we were quite reluctant.

I for one cant wait for the two girls to turn 18.  I love lesbians, but I really love hot ones starting out in the exploration of the wonder that is the female body.