By REBECCA WALSH education reporter
Anglican Maori bishops have lodged a claim with the Waitangi Tribunal as a "safeguard" against closure of a Maori boys' boarding school.
The Bishop of Aotearoa, Te Whakahuihui Vercoe, told a hui called to discuss the future of St Stephen's School in Bombay and Queen Victoria School
in Parnell that both schools would remain open.
He said he and his fellow Maori bishops had lodged a claim with the Waitangi Tribunal which they would proceed with if the Government withdrew funding for St Stephen's.
Bishop Vercoe said withdrawal of funding would represent a breach of the Treaty of Waitangi "because we are supposed to help one another."
He hoped it would not go that far.
"We are here today to indicate to the Government and the country [that] Closing the Gaps is a policy worth pursuing. "Closing these schools is killing one partner."
In August, Education Minister Trevor Mallard announced that he was looking at cancelling the agreement integrating St Stephen's into the state-funded school system because of fears over the health and safety of students.
This year, two incidents of bullying at the school were reported to the police. In February, more than 20 senior students were suspended for three days after junior boys were hit with a stick and kicked about the head.
Later in the year, the joint schools' trust board decided that Queen Victoria and St Stephen's would close because of financial problems.
A new co-educational school was planned to open in 2002.
Queen Victoria old girl Titewhai Harawira did not accept Bishop Vercoe's promise and said she wanted a "real, written guarantee." Ms Harawira said the trust board had deliberately allowed the schools to become run down, "so the Government can cruise in and take away the money."
Maori wanted a choice for their children's education and more of the education budget, she said. "Closing the Gaps is not empowering the people so don't fall into that trap, unless we see the cheque to go with it."
Responding to questions from members of both school communities, Bishop Vercoe said it was the Maori bishops who had the power to make the decision over the future of the schools.
But he said the bishops did not have the power to remove the trust board, despite calls for them to do so.
