The Salvation Army Has Completely Withdrawn Their Support Of Safe Schools

In an incredibly disappointing — but unfortunetly unsurprising move — The Salvation Army has backed away from their previous support of the Safe Schools anti-bulling initiative.

Over the weekend, the organisation — who only last month advocated the importance of the program in suicide and bullying prevention in the LGBTQI community — stated that “they cannot unconditionally support the Safe Schools programs in Australia in their current form”. It’s unclear what has caused this dramatic flip.

Despite an independent review of Safe Schools finding no major problems with the program’s content or teaching, the government caved to conservative backbenchers in March and enacted restrictions on the program that arguably could compromise the privacy and mental wellbeing of LGBTQI students. The program has endured ridiculous critiques this year, including George Christensen likening Safe Schools to “paedophile grooming”, Safe Schools co-founder Roz Ward being relentlessly bullied and more conservative and ill-informed Daily Telegraph outrage op-eds than you could count.

Now it seems that The Salvation Army has caved to their critics and retreated from their positive stance in November, at which time they announced: “The Salvation Army supports the Safe Schools Coalition Victoria in its initiative designed to reduce homophobic and transphobic behaviour and create safe learning environments for all students.”

“The Salvation Army is concerned by the very high level of bullying, higher levels mental health issues and the highest rates of suicidality of any group in Australia for same-sex attracted and gender diverse young people. The Salvation Army’s Victoria State Council (VSC) has been aware of the negative claims about the Safe Schools program and its related materials but believes these to be unfounded.”

At the time, The Salvation Army was praised for their tolerant stance.

The Salvation Army’s new “national position” is that Safe Schools is somehow lacking (they don’t specify what they think is wrong with it or why they have changed their minds in a matter of weeks) and that “there needs to be consideration and refinement to the scope and form of implementation”. Although they still express sympathy for children who are directly hurt by ignorant and damaging attitudes towards the LGBTQI community, they are careful to distance themselves from the beloved program.

It’s hard to believe that an organisation truly cares about the lives of queer children when they refuse to advocate initiatives that have actual tangible outcomes for their wellbeing. It’s easy to say that you support the LGBTQI community and then not actually do anything to back up that claim. In reality, a religious organisation supporting Safe Schools did actually have the potential to sway some conservative critics of the program.

The link between Safe Schools and the mental health of queer kids is undeniable. As Junkee writer, Sally Rugg, recently said in her piece about the death of bullying victim Tyrone Unsworth, “Had the teachers at Apsley State High School had access to the educational resources that the Safe Schools program offers, it’s feasible that Tyrone would have been able to receive appropriate support at school.”

“But we will never know how that might have changed things.”

–

Image from The Salvation Army Australia Facebook.