Nor'West News: June 18, 2019

NOR’WEST NEWS Latest Christchurch news at www.star.kiwi
Tuesday June 18 2019 7
Gender neutral loos for Burnside High
• By Tatiana Gibbs
THE SOUTH Island’s largest
high school will soon have a
gender neutral bathroom.
Burnside High School is
following a nationwide trend
of being inclusive and diverse
by planning a gender neutral
toilet facility, which is due to
be completed
next month
for use in term
three.
Principal
Phil Holstein
said the
move was
in response
to students
Phil Holstein
who wanted
a gender
diverse space where they feel
comfortable.
The new bathroom will be in
the school’s central block.
“This is a big step for us in
order to acknowledge and
recognise our gender neutral
students,” Mr Holstein said.
Burnside High follows
Beckenham Primary School
and Lincoln High School,
which also have gender neutral
bathrooms.
The trend has been supported
by the Ministry of Education,
which has funded the facility at
Burnside High.
The school has a total roll of
INCLUSIVE: Burnside High School’s new gender neutral bathroom is due to be finished next
month in time for term three.
about 2500 students and has a
LGBTQ+ club, which has been
in place for four years.
Teacher in charge of the
club Karen Healey said
Burnside High has students
who feel “uncomfortable using
bathrooms that don’t match
their gender identity.”
“We really want schools
to be a safe and supporting
environment for students, and
that can mean adjusting our
mind, language and even our
buildings,” she said.
It follows Burnside High’s
decision to open up the
school uniform regulations to
interpretation by students.
Students can now choose
what school uniform items they
are comfortable in, rather than
being restricted to clothing by
gender identity.
Local
News
Now
• By Jess Gibson
Fire rages, homes at risk
Dead kauri
tree to be
replaced
in Papanui
A KAURI tree which died several
weeks after it was planted at St
James Park, Papanui, will be
replaced by a japanese maple tree.
The 12m kauri had to be
removed due to a problem with
its roots. The city council will also
add some flowering cherry trees
along the main path and several
wollemi pines.
Wollemi pines are considered
one of the world’s rarest plants
and are critically endangered
in the wild. The oldest wollemi
tree fossil is 200 million-yearsold,
but the first living plant was
only discovered 25 years ago in
Australia’s Blue Mountains.
Papanui-Innes Community
Board member John Stringer
said the kauri tree’s decline was
mainly caused by girdling roots,
which meant the tree strangled
itself below ground.
He said city council staff dug up
and water blasted the roots and on
inspection found the root system
was deformed.
Due to the advanced state of
the tree’s decline and its root
deformities, corrective measures
were not an option.
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