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Teachers and parents debate whether public school chaplains need to be religious

After working in WA public schools for 35 years, Karen Jones has seen it all. From NAPLAN stress to teenagers struggling with depression and bullying, you would be hard pressed to find an issue she didn’t deal with in her decades-long career. But when the retired public school principal recently looked at the criteria on an advertisement for a public school chaplain position she realised she wouldn’t qualify. Neither would her daughter, who has spent years as a youth worker and has been nominated for State awards. Why? Because neither of them attend church. “My daughter had been nominated in past years for their project work as a youth worker, now they are a parent I thought (being a chaplain) would be a lovely job for them,” Ms Jones said. “When I looked at the criteria, neither of us, with all my years experience working in the primary school sector mostly, and with difficult situations of teenagers, none of that would make me qualified because I have to be a regular churchgoer in the job application. “And neither would my daughter, who is an exceptional youth worker, to the point where they were nominated for State awards, and they are not eligible either. Now, that is not getting the best person for the job, and there are schools that need the best person for the job.” Ms Jones retired about two years ago. While she was still working for the Education Department she was gagged by rules that ban teachers and principals from speaking to media. But now she is retired, Ms Jones wants to speak out regarding long-held concerns about how chaplaincy programs are running in WA public schools. She is a member of newly formed group called the WA Public School Alliance, which is made up of parents and others concerned about policies that require chaplains to be religious. What is the school chaplaincy program? In WA, public school chaplains are funded by both the Federal and State governments. Since the National Schools Chaplaincy Program was launched by John Howard in 2007, it has received more than $1billion in taxpayer cash. Tony Abbott was a major supporter of the program and his government was taken to the High Court twice after he blocked atheist workers from it. Under the program, chaplains are required to have religious affiliation “recognised through formal ordination, commissioning, recognised religious qualifications or endorsement by a recognised or accepted religious institution”. According to the Federal Government, NSCP chaplains “can be of any faith” and are not permitted to proselytise and must “respect, accept and be sensitive to other people’s views, values and beliefs”. But studies suggest most school chaplains are of the Christian faith, with one in 2011 finding that 96.5 per cent of those employed under the program were Christian. In WA, the State Government also funds the School State Funded Chaplaincy Program, which it says was a response to increased demand from public schools for chaplains. As part of an election promise earlier this year, Premier Mark McGowan announced an extra $21.8 million towards the program so “every WA State school has access to resources to provide additional emotional and social support for students”. For the State program the Government contracts three providers YouthCARE, Scripture Union WA and onPsych Chaplaincy. Both YouthCARE and Scripture Union WA are Christian organisations. In advertisements for WA public school chaplains, YouthCARE lists in its requirements “demonstrated active engagement in the life of a Christian church and denomination that affirms the triune Godhead of Father, Son and Holy Spirit and is a member or associate church of YouthCARE”. In questions it also asks applicants to “outline your calling to chaplaincy and your Christian faith plays a role in this calling”. Education Minister Sue Ellery said “there is no State Government requirement for school chaplains to be of faith”. OnPsych told The Sunday Times it “complies with State Government policy” and does not require that its chaplains be of faith or religious affiliation”. What are the concerns? For Ms Jones and others involved in the WA Public School Alliance one of the major complaints about the chaplaincy program is it is discriminatory. She said when chaplains were initially rolled out in public schools it was believed there would be “a fair bit of flexibility”. But she said the hiring practices of contractors like YouthCARE meant this was not actually the case. But with teachers dealing with increasing workloads and more mental health problems among students, no school was going to say no to an extra pair of hands. In Victoria, the Rationalist Society ran a case against the State Government in 2019 over its chaplaincy program and requirements for chaplains to be of faith. As a result, the Victorian Government agreed to change position descriptions to state that chaplains may be “of any faith or of no faith”. Rationalist Society president Meredith Doig said they were considering running a similar case in WA. “The schools need these people and we recognise they need support people. Quite often the chaplain might be a really nice person and do a good job. That’s not our beef, our beef is you’re excluding a whole lot of people on an unlawful basis,” Dr Doig said. Rosemary Lynch is among parents who’ve recently written to Ms Ellery over her concerns about the program and its hiring practices. “Anyone with the right qualifications can apply to be a teacher, a cleaner, work in school admin or apply to be a principal of our WA Government schools. None of these jobs is dependent on any one set of beliefs,” she said. Ms Lynch said part of her worry was that some courses chaplains took encouraged evangelism. “It’s very problematic when you go and have a look at the courses people can do to become a chaplain,” she said. “Some of the units themselves are about sharing the faith and evangelism ... it seems to me you’ve got that tension there. Why would you have that in the units and still be saying you don’t prophetise?” School chaplains are required to hold a Certificate IV in Youth Work, a Certificate IV in Pastoral Care, or a Certificate IV in Chaplaincy and Pastoral Care. Among those running chaplaincy courses is Margaret Court’s Victory Life Bible College. Ms Court has come under fire in recent years for her opposition to marriage equality. She has previously claimed that transgender children are the work of “the devil”. The Sunday Times has viewed LinkedIn profiles of WA public school chaplains who received their training at Victory Life. We also obtained a photo of Victory Life members attending a WA public school with a chaplain in 2018. Ms Jones said she had major concerns about anyone affiliated with Victory Life attending a WA public school. “That is just the No.1 most important thing to me. You cannot have prejudice, and I’m sorry but Margaret Court’s church and the fundamentalists, are prejudiced,” she said. ‘Non-judgmental approach’ YouthCARE chief operating officer Dean Caddy said less than 2.5 per cent of the chaplains it employed over the past three years had qualifications from Victory Life Centre. “YouthCARE has been providing chaplaincy services for over 40 years in WA public schools. It is a Christian religious charity thus employing Christian chaplains,” he said. “There are currently over 400 YouthCARE chaplains in 600 schools throughout WA, providing pastoral care to students, staff and families.” He said the service was based on “respect, compassion and service” and offered the organisation’s “non-judgmental approach which meet the needs of and is valued by hundreds of school communities”. “Having experienced our service and having confidence in our reputation over many years, schools voluntarily choose to access YouthCARE’s chaplaincy service to help make valuable contributions to their school’s student services team and their community,” he said. “All YouthCARE chaplains must abide by the organisation’s and Department of Education code of conduct, which does not allow proselytisation.” He said the needs of WA schools were significant and there was strong proof that students, principals, teachers, colleagues and parents value the service. “Recent research undertaken by independent researchers at UWA demonstrates that YouthCARE’s chaplaincy service is highly valued by the school community. Pastoral care, though not clinical, is seen as a critical service within the student support services, school and wider community,” he said. Ms Ellery said school chaplaincy services in WA public schools were voluntary and it remains a school decision as to whether to access the chaplaincy program. “Currently some 507 public schools have chosen to use chaplaincy services, but there are still more schools that have sought chaplaincy services that have not previously been able to use them because funding was limited,” she said. “Our recent election commitment provides funding for any public school that chooses to use a chaplaincy service that has not been able to. “It is a requirement under the agreements between the school and the chaplaincy service that chaplains are not to proselytise and will respect, accept and be sensitive to other people’s views, values and beliefs. “In addition to schools choosing to have a chaplain, it still always remains parental choice as to whether their child has contact with the chaplain.” She said the Government had also committed $42.2 million to increase the number of school psychologists in the State’s government and non-government schools. “This will see an additional 100 full-time psychologists in our public schools over the next four years with an associated increase in supervising and lead psychologists,” she said. Pania Turner, president of the Western Australian Council of State School Organisations, said the feedback she got from parents on chaplains was positive. She said some schools’ P&Cs had even fundraised for chaplains themselves. “They see them as a support person to absolutely not replace a school psychologist but to be somebody kids can go and talk to if they need to,” she said. “We’re very clear about any proselytising and I think if we ever heard there was anything like that, religious views being shared on school grounds, we would definitely have an issue with that.”

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Teachers and parents debate whether public school chaplains need to be religious