SYDNEY, Australia – Clapping is now banned at Sydney’s Elanora Heights Public School to accommodate students who are sensitive to loud noises, the latest in a long line of politically correct moves by Australian schools.
Elanora school officials announced its new policy in July 18 newsletter to parents, Perth Now reports.
“If you’ve been to a school assembly recently, you may have noticed out students doing silent cheers. Instead of clapping, the students are free to punch the air, pull excited faces and wriggle about on the spot,” the newsletter read.
“This practice has been adopted to respect members of our school community who are sensitive to noise. When you attend an assembly, teachers will prompt the audience to conduct a silent cheer if it is needed. Teachers have also found the silent cheers to be a great way to expend children’s energy and reduce fidgeting.”
The news site described the new policy as “the latest example of a political correctness outbreak in Australian schools, which have banned hugging, singing Christmas carols, celebrating Australia Day and singing the word ‘black’ in the nursery rhyme ‘baa baa black sheep.’”
Perth Now reports the Elanroa school announcement came the same day that an exclusive all-girls Cheltenham Girls High School ordered students and teachers to avoid calling students “girls,” “ladies,” or “women,” out of fear of offending LFBTI students.
School officials want students and staff to use gender-neutral terms like “students,” instead, the Daily Mail reports.
Cheltenham teacher Miranda Devine said the directive came from school administrators during a recent training session for a Safe Schools program she described as “benignly labelled sexual propaganda” that incorporates “homosexual role play and gender fluidity training,” according to The Guardian.
“We are told that it is bigotry to have a ‘heteronormative’ view of gender as binary – male or female – or to believe that heterosexual attraction is the norm,” she said. “This is the attitude which Safe Schools is designed to stamp out.”
The allegations that school officials are forcing staff to use gender-neutral titles for students at the all-girls school was first reported by the Daily Telegraph and are currently under investigation by the New South Wales education minister, Adrian Piccoli, according to The Guardian.
Cheltenham school officials, meanwhile, have refuted the allegations on Facebook.
“Cheltenham Girls’ High School has a proud, ongoing tradition of providing high quality education for girls,” officials posted to the school’s Facebook page. “The school has not, and will not, change the way students’ gender is referred to. The school supports all of its students in a positive and inclusive environment, in which each girl is treated with respect and dignity.”
Other Australian schools have also implemented politically correct policies that have irked parents.
In April, St. Patricks Primary School in Geelong banned students and staff from hugging, though principal John Grant said “nothing in particular” prompted the change, Perth Now reports.
Grant contends some students are “enthusiastic huggers” that sometimes make others uncomfortable, so the school replaced hugs with high-fives and “knuckle handshakes.”
“There’s a range of methods including a high five or a particular knuckle handshake where they clunk knuckles as a simple way of saying ‘well done’,” Grant said, according to EAGnews. “There are also verbal affirmations and acknowledgments.”
“We have a lot of kids who walk up and hug each other and we’re trying to encourage all of us to respect personal space,” he said. “It really comes back to not everyone is comfortable in being hugged.”
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