Fraser High School students stage mass walkout over principal's controversial truancy speech

More than 100 Fraser High School Students have stormed out of class in protest of their principal's comments about truancy at school.

Graffiti reading "f*** you Mrs Crawford" had also sprung up since the speech by principal Virginia Crawford last week.

Students can be seen coming out of the Hamilton school and gathering near the gate. A couple of outraged parents also joined the students.

Fraser High School students stage a mass walkout over their principal's controversial speech on wagging. Photo / Belinda Feek

Last Thursday Crawford gave a speech saying students who wagged were "highly likely to go to prison, either commit domestic violence or be a victim of domestic violence, be illiterate, be a rape victim, be a suicide victim, be unemployed for the majority of their life, have a major health problem, die at an early age, have an addiction, gambling, drugs or smoking".

The speech was secretly recorded by a student and uploaded to YouTube where it quickly went viral.

There have also been reports of unrest, with graffiti and vandalising of school property.

Student Cody Barron, 16, said the speech had since divided the school, with people either supporting her and upset at what she said.

"It's definitely divided the school. Everyone's split apart. Some people are setting off fire alarms, costing the school like $3500."

He said it had only happened once - on Friday - but he expected it to happen again.

"There's also been a lot of tagging. Targeting Ms Crawford."

The graffiti read "f*** you Mrs Crawford," he said.

He wanted Crawford to apologise.

Fraser High School Year 13 student Lauese Faaosofia, 17, was embarrassed by the protest. Photo / Belinda Feek

"We want an apology to the community and everyone else she's offended really."

Parents Jo Scott and Justine Kettle were unimpressed with Crawford's comments.

Scott, who has a son in Year 11 at the school, said she was proud of the kids taking a stand for what they believed in.

"I think good on the kids for standing up to her."

She no longer supported the principal, she said.

"Do I support the principal? Nah. I might have last week but not any more. How can you support someone who's just called all our kids losers?"

Scott wanted to see Crawford apologise for what she said, a sentiment shared by other students who were protesting this morning.

However, while many disagreed with her sentiments, some senior students have backed Crawford, stating her message has been misunderstood by students.

Older students at the school gates said she used "shock-tactic" language to get her message across.

Parents of pupils at Fraser High School Jo Scott, left, and Justine Kettle, were at the protest to support the students standing up to principal Virginia Crawford. Photo / Belinda Feek

Lauese Faaosofia, 17, said he was embarrassed by the protest as it made the school look bad.

"These guys are making our school look bad, smoking, what the hell? Our school is good, it's the people, as you can see, wagging. She was trying to give us a message not to wag. These kid here, Year 9, they don't even know what they're here for."

The Year 13 student said he supported the message Crawford was trying to send about not wagging school.

Fellow Year 13 student Carlos Tuimavave was also frustrated by the protest, stating a lot of the students were younger and just looking to get attention.

He believed students had misinterpreted Crawford's speech and said she had to use emotive language to get her message across.

"I support Ms Crawford ... most of these kids here are juniors. What they didn't understand about Mrs (Crawford's) speech was the message she was sending. She could have used better context within her speech with the use of consequences and stuff ... but if she said something like, 'you wag and you're gonna get a detention', no one would care. No one would listen.

"Obviously she got her point across if this is the outcome. Obviously her point got across to every student here.

"I feel like she had to go to the extreme to be able to get our attention for us to listen."

He said she wasn't targeting her message at any specific student or groups of students, "if you make bad decisions now imagine the outcome of your decisions that you make later in life".

When asked why kids were wagging, he said some teachers weren't able to adapt to all of the different needs of the students.

"So maybe they aren't enjoying the class as much as they could. They might be wagging because they're not receiving the support that they wish to receive."

He said the students should "just be grateful that we have a principal who cares about us enough to worry about our futures."

"She wouldn't have said that if she didn't care about us."

Students and parents on social media last week condemned the speech as demotivating and stereotyping.

"Any student that walks out the gate to truant is already the statistic of the worse kind," Crawford said during the speech given at school assembly.

Crawford told the students truants wouldn't survive outside of Hamilton and pretended they were "a big person" in Nawton, Dinsdale or Western Heights.

Students are walking out of Fraser High School in protest over their principal's controversial speech on wagging. Photo / Belinda Feek

"When I drive out of school during class time for meetings, and I see groups of students sitting outside the dairy, fish and chip shop, bus stop, some of the things I am thinking is that is another group of students without a future.

"That is another student who will end up as a statistic, that's another loser, that's another wannabe. Another student desperate for friendship, another we've lost."

She urged students to put in the effort at school to make a better life for themselves.

"You and I know the only way to fix this is to do the mahi now, to do the work now. School is not easy, but it is a lot easier than having no hope and being cast aside without any worthwhile future."

When approached at the school office, Crawford declined to make any comment, referring the Herald to Board of Trustees chairman Jeff Green.

Green released a statement this afternoon saying the student-led protest only lasted for period two and students were back in class for period 3, "so we consider the school to be operating as usual," he said.