Sex, schoolkids and where it all goes wrong
Privilege. Porn. Parent-free parties. An alcohol-fuelled climate in which being nice to girls is considered uncool. A wave of sexual assault allegations involving students from some of our top private schools underlines the need to foster a healthier brand of manhood.
May 15, 2021
Private boys’ schools are capturing the nation’s attention because of how frequently young women have cited these schools as hothouses for sexual predation, and for what this might tell us about male and class privilege in Australia.
Credit:Getty Images (posed by models)
Warning: This story includes graphic content.
Talking points
Domestic violence is the leading cause of homelessness but there isnât enough affordable housing for families.
Michele Adair, CEO of Housing Trust, has revealed she almost ended up on the street herself with her two children.
Experts say building more social housing, where vulnerable people only pay 25-30% of their income on rent, would also create jobs.
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One day, not long after Michele Adair turned nine, she came home from school to find her young, successful father had died. It had been a sudden and brutal illness, pancreatic cancer striking at 46, but Adair and her brother, even her father himself, had not known that he was dying until there was silence from the bedroom down the hall. He hadnât asked the doctors how long he had, and no one had told the children why he had been in bed the past two months. No one had really wanted to believe it. That afternoon, she came home from school as usual but home had forever changed.
Colleen Hawkes20:00, May 06 2021
Ten new houses received Housing Awards in the NZIA Wellington Architecture Awards.
Social housing and bespoke homes were both winners in a Wellington awards ceremony celebrating the best architecture in the region. Two Kāinga Ora social housing developments, one in Mt Cook and one in Porirua, took out both the Housing – Multi Unit awards at the Te Kāhui Whaihanga New Zealand Institute of Architects Wellington Awards, while 10 new houses won Housing Awards. The Kāinga Ora Hanson Street development of 20 one-bedroom homes in Mt Cook, by Herriot Melhuish O’Neill Architects, and the Castor Crescent development in Porirua by Tennent Brown Architects received special mention from the awards judges.
Students Kingsley Palmer, 13, from Scots College in Wellington, and Aaron Wrathall, 16, from Aotea College in Porirua, were on the course, hearing about what Massey offered. Kingsley said they had been using coding to make the different notes and tempo to create the theme for
Mission Impossible. Kingsley said the work was inspiring. “I ve always wanted to do robotics and engineering for a very long time. I m intending on going to university to do robotics.”
WARWICK SMITH/Stuff
Kingsley Palmer, from Scots College in Wellington, holds a microcontroller board. Wrathall said it showed them another option for study and what life was like on campus.
One of Australia s most exclusive boys schools could become co-ed in a move designed to change its culture after it was included among other schools in a petition started by young women urging a change to the culture surrounding sexual assault.
Cranbrook School - which has past students including generations of the Packer family, Atlassian billionaire Mike Cannon-Brookes, Channel Nine boss David Gyngell and entertainment icon Garry McDonald - has been a boys-only school since its founding in 1918.
Now there is a plan, circulated between principal Nicholas Sampson, senior staff and directors for Cranbrook to admit girls to join its International Baccalaureate Diploma classes from as soon as next year.