Eagle Junction State School

I am so glad to be part of the wonderful community called EJ, however although it is great, it is still flawed.
These are some of the problems with EJ:

1. Sexist sports. For our seasonal inter school sports competition (Gala Day) for example, students participating in soccer weren’t even consulted about what level of skill they would like to play in and the ‘A team’ (most skilled) was automatically filled entirely with boys and even the girls who played soccer after school, at lunchtime and even in regional competitions were placed in the ‘C team’ (least skilled). This just shows what lack of respect this school has for girls in sports or girls at all and is basically telling them that they will never be as good as the boys (even though some of the boys placed in the A team barely even played soccer). This is just blatant sexism and a disgrace.

2. Unnecessary gender segregation
This school has a significant population of gender diverse students however they continue to be ignored. For example in school leadership roles, dances, sports and so many more, students are separated into ‘boys and girls’. Some may say this is necessary but in fact it ignores gender diverse students and excludes them from participating in so many activities. This is discrimination.

3. Religious Instruction is problematic
For your information, Eagle Junction is a public, coed, state sponsored school with students from all cultural and religious backgrounds however for some unknown reason it continues to teach students how to be ‘good Catholics, Cristians or Anglicans’. Everyone has freedom of religion and the right to practice their own religion in what ever way they like however they have no business ‘instructing’ students in a state school. So what happens is basically once a week students are broken up into 4 groups (Catholics, Cristians, Anglicans and ‘Non-participants’) and are taught how to follow their religion. This may sound innocent however it takes out a significant chunk of our learning each week and is ignorant of every other religion there is. There is a significant Hindu population at our school (Not to mention Jewish students, Islam students, Buddhist students and so many more) however they are completely ignored. How can we celebrate Harmony day if we only celebrate Cristians? Not to mention that the man representing Catholics told us that people who get a divorce are sinners and won’t go to heaven. My parents are divorced and I strongly believe that divorces can save lives if people are in an unsafe situation so this did not make me feel good. (For some reason he also carried a visible hunters knife in his back pocket!) Families should teach their own kids about their religion and leave everyone else alone.

Dear EJ, please fix this up, it’s really messed up.
Thank you for reading.