Letter to the Editor

More to helmet saga than meets the eye

Dear Editor,
I write only to express my opinion on the helmet policy saga at Tereora College, recently publicised in the media over the last month or so. I don’t intend to purposely offend anyone in particular but instead make statements based purely from an ‘outsider’ (but parent nevertheless) point of view.
Firstly, it saddens me to watch how unreasonable many can be over such a controversial debate, and that I totally support the helmet policy for the safety of not only our school children but for all motorists.
It appears that the PTA committee is very passionate towards accomplishing this project since they keep emphasizing that a supposed two years is ‘wasted’ because a concerned parent laid a complaint into the legality of the proposed policies to enforce the use of safety helmets outside of school.
From these events, I see a PTA committee that failed to successfully plan and implement a very sensitive but important project, and if factual, they too should do the honourable thing by accepting the consequences resulting.
I get the impression that the members of this committee, particularly the chairman who has been very vocal about his opinions in the past, is constantly trying to attack Government in order to get their opinions heard. (To support this statement, I witnessed a very similar incident, at the initiation of councillor and prefects last year). I also see the support of these rebellious actions by the current principal of Tereora College who appears to be taking disregard to Government policies and procedures, by encouraging the PTA Committee to seek legal opinions from the Crown Law Office. To this, it does not look or sound good at all for your public image, given that Government funds in excess of approximately $8m plus AID monies to the Education system to which you both were elected/appointed to represent.
What dissatisfies me personally is that this issue managed to turn Cook Islanders against each other – one must really tread carefully when publicising opinions, they can hurt many and can be difficult to undo.
If I have incorrectly stated anything or offended anyone, I publicly apologise, I am merely expressing my feelings about something that should have been resolved in the proper forum instead of the media.
I sympathise with the Dance family, no doubt this is a trying time for you, and I can only imagine the intimidation and criticism that people may have directed towards you.
I am appalled that such comments were directed to this family and others, such as: ‘where were you during the consultation stages?’ and ‘why don’t you talk to someone who has lost a child’ or ‘what if it was your child?’ etc. (Similar statements were published in a recent Tereora College newsletter).
To those of you who blatantly say or think these, I ask you all to step back and think about how cruel these comments are and the impact on those receiving them. Put yourself in their shoes. What right does anyone to say such things? I am assuming that these are smoke screens to hide the hurt that has been experienced by being caught out – someone found a loophole, pointed it out and now it doesn’t feel very comfortable.
These comments hurt the Dance family, but they are also directed to many families including mine since I too was unable to attend the meetings or contribute in any way to the project.
I congratulate the Dance family for having the ‘initiative’ to point out this weakness before far worse complications may arise. If my child was sent home for failure to adhere to a policy that is not legally accepted, then I would have reacted the same? You should not push your agendas onto others, despite it being the ‘right’ thing, it simply is not acceptable.
The actions of the principal and the chairman of the PTA committee are the first I have seen since my days as a pupil at Tereora, and I am surprised that the Ministry of Education has only just intervened to end the nonsensical actions of the parties involved.
It never should have attracted this level of media attention. I wonder if a clear ‘terms of reference’ has been given to both the principal and the PTA committee to identify their roles and responsibilities in the education system. I have never seen such a farce from the predecessors.
Much time and energy taken to publicise the debate should have been poured into ‘fixing’ the problem instead of encouraging it. A wise man would accept the complaint as helpful feedback and go back to the drawing board to figure out another strategy to accomplish the objective, and until you all do, I’m afraid you only have yourselves to blame for wasting two years and another month if you keep this up.
I urge you all to do your homework this time, find out from Government agencies what policies are in place and how systems work in the public sector and ‘follow protocol’ this time round to make sure you have covered all areas.
I suggest contacting agencies such as: Ministry of Police, Parliamentary Services, MFEM and the Office of the Prime Minister would be a start. Perhaps you can invite all or other schools or even to approach the Vaka councils to help strengthen your proposal, but you too need to define your current roles and determine whether you are within the boundaries delegated to you. It doesn’t take a lawyer to work out that this project requires law change for effectiveness.
I suggest we leave the Dance family and those who support their argument alone and leave the policy makers to make policy while we gather our data and create our proposals to submit to the policy makers to help encourage their decisions.
There is a right way to do things, and petty mini-riots will not achieve this, so, how about we put this matter to rest and put our heads together again?
Maybe, advertise the consultation process next time so everyone can join in and help legalise safety helmets for a safer Cook Islands?

Meitaki maata
Safety for all
(Name and address supplied)
Ps: I have no intention of publicising my name so any comments to that effect will fall on deaf ears I’m afraid, I don’t want to go through what the Dance family went through.