Student Wellbeing 

IDAHOBIT DAY - MAY 17TH

The following article was written by students from our amazing Wantirna Pride. 

The group celebrates diversity and inclusivity and puts on many events throughout the year, raising awareness in our school community regarding LGBTIQA+ issues. If your young person would like to join Wantirna Pride, they can contact Ms Middleton or Guiseppe Relia.

Each year on May 17th is IDAHOBIT Day (International Day Against Homophobia, Biphobia and Transphobia). The day is to raise awareness about LGBTIQA+ and how far we have come.

May 17th 1990 was the day the World Health Organization declassified homosexuality as a mental health problem. There are many different ways people can celebrate this day, but here at Wantirna College the way we celebrated this year was by getting students to write a pledge to stand up against discrimination and bullying of LGBTIQA+ people on pieces of coloured paper which we will be putting up in the Wellbeing Centre.

We had two groups of students; one group in the Wellbeing Centre and the other group out the front of The Orchard. In the Wellbeing Centre we had tables set up where students could come pledge and then get a lollipop or a sticker. We had a lot of students coming to write pledges and some even wrote more than one. Statements included, “I pledge to stand up against homophobia’’ and “We will stand up for our LGBTIQA+ classmates.” It was great to see some teachers who wrote pledges like “I support my non-binary family member.” We had heaps of students do some amazing drawings along with writing a pledge.

Overall, we had a very positive day along with being able to create a lovely decoration filled with kindness towards LGBTIQA+ students and staff.

The Students of Wantirna Pride

Webinar on families and carers of young people with Mental  Illness 1pm Thurs 27th May