English/Languages 

On the streets of Melbourne, in the parks of our universities, Australian students have been protesting about their sense of injustice in Israel and Gaza. Year 11 students have also been writing about protest this semester. Finding a voice is important for students as they near the end of their compulsory schooling. Students in Years 11 and 12 just completed a SAC on the Craft of Writing. 

One of the challenges students have is writing for an audience. This is largely an artificial exercise at school, as their audience is usually restricted to classmates and teachers, but a few excerpts of student work illustrate student voice for the community of St John’s.

Mr Michael Toomey 

English Learning Leader 

To eliminate freedom of speech is to eliminate free will in one way or another. When in the early morning birdsong can be heard, is the bird condemned for singing at a time it can cause disruption. Obviously not. Is the crow condemned for having a song different to the blackbird, or the blackbird to the magpie? No. They are called unique, beautiful, even heavenly. So why then, when one person says something, there is another ready to dispute them? Why then, are whole groups of people silenced? Why are the lips of humanity sewn shut and all that which escapes must be approved by a higher authority first? And it can said that nothing is permissible except for the glorification of this imprisonment and ignorance and denial of it existing at all.  It is the job of humanity, then, unpick each stitch and sing of injustice the way the unremarkable bird does without cease each morning. Think for a moment of that bird. That bird has more freedom than people living under oppressive systems, which is to say most people on earth. The bird can sing what it likes, fly where it wants, and sample food to feed both itself and its children. There are people who do not have what even the bird has. This is the injustice of the world. This is the injustice which we owe to all humanity to fight against. Freedom of speech is an inalienable right. It is a right all people should have-a right all people are entitled to- to be able to bring to light the scales tipped against them. Freedom of speech, at its core, is just a fundamental human right. It is also a system of justice. This is protest. This is about speaking until one is heard, one is listened to. Injustice must be attacked with the same fervour as the singing bird: unceasing and unrelenting.

Zoe Gotsis 

“Mum come! Look at the news,” I exclaimed. Her face I will never forget, so full of rage, hatred and anger. Her energy spread across the room like a bad smell, her smile faded like a symphony of water glazed her iris. What had appeared on TV scared me too, though I wasn’t surprised. It was George Floyd; he had been killed. Was the colour of his skin so important? Of course it was, because I am now even more terrified of the injustice in this country, I am now even more scared because me and George are the same and I don’t want the same ending to my story.

Injustice and racism usually make people feel uneasy. For me it was definite. This pit in my stomach all day. I couldn’t get the tapestry of ballocks I was put through everyday out of my head. 

Kristiana Nikitas

Declaration Of Freedom

Good morning and thank you for coming to this park to hear my address on the freedom which has been stripped from us. Our voices have been silenced by government oppressors who shackle us and cover our mouths with tape. Well, I stand here today to rip that piece of tape off my mouth and ask you all to stand here to take the fight for our brothers and sisters who have been subject to racism, in this so-called country of freedom called America. We must let them scare us into silence anymore.

Bheeshman Karan