David Farrar: A school that lies

The FSU reports:

Rather than admit to suppressing Oliver’s right to free speech, the principal has stubbornly maintained that Oliver’s entry never made it into the speech final in the first place, implying it wasn’t good enough to qualify.

There’s one problem the school hadn’t realised. Oliver – frustrated with the hypocritical treatment he was receiving from certain staff – had taken it upon himself to record some of his meetings with them discreetly.

The recordings repeatedly and very clearly show that the school accepted him into the finals of the competition, and then censored Oliver, solely for his views.

We obviously don’t recommend secretly recording others. But given what the recording shows, we think the school has absolutely no right to be lecturing Oliver about ethical standards.

Isn’t this so sad. A school leadership that lies to its own students and gaslights them. They have forced a 15 year old to record conversations with school leaders because they were saying things differently in public and private. What sort of moral example do the school leaders set for their students?

David Farrar runs Curia Market Research, a specialist opinion polling and research agency, and the popular Kiwiblog where this article was sourced. He previously worked in the Parliament for eight years, serving two National Party Prime Ministers and three Opposition Leaders.