About 100 Hutt Valley High School students turned the front lawn of Parliament into a make-shift study space today to protest the state of their school buildings.
Hutt South MP Ginny Andersen with Hutt Valley High School head students, Charlotte Leach and Patrick Maslen.
Photo: Dom Thomas
Dangerous levels of toxic mould found in classrooms last term have forced the closure of 16 teaching spaces and other facilities and forced about 500 students to study from home half the week.
Unwilling to miss further school time, students brought along folding chairs, picnic rugs and even a couple of tables, unpacking textbooks, tablets and art projects - and requested the Parliamentary wifi password, which was written on a whiteboard.
ROBERT KITCHIN/STUFF
Hutt Valley High School students protest the closure of some of their classrooms due to toxic mould and damp by setting up a classroom on the Parliament front lawn.
Students shut out of their classrooms because of toxic mould say the problem is a symptom of chronic underfunding for the upkeep of public schools. About 350 Year 12 and 13 pupils at Hutt Valley High School have had to do half their weekly learning at home since Monday after unsafe levels of black mould was discovered in 13 learnings spaces and a dance studio earlier this year. At a meeting held in the school hall on Thursday night to update the community on how the school and the Ministry of Education planned to respond to the situation, deputy head student Lucy Rodger said while she was happy to see progress, the commitment by the ministry to demolish and rebuild C block was “horrendously and frustratingly overdue”.
Report from RNZ
About 100 Hutt Valley High School students turned the front lawn of Parliament into a make-shift study space yesterday to protest against the state of their school buildings.
Dangerous levels of toxic mould found in classrooms last term have forced the closure of 16 teaching spaces and other facilities and forced about 500 students to study from home half the week.
Unwilling to miss further school time, students brought along folding chairs, picnic rugs and even a couple of tables, unpacking textbooks, tablets and art projects – and requested the Parliamentary wifi password, which was written on a whiteboard.
Then they put their heads down and worked while juggling interviews with reporters and MPs looking for photo opportunities.