Australian lesbian couple banned from school ball
A teenage lesbian couple in Australia are changing schools after they were barred from attending a ball together.
Hannah Williams, 16, wanted to take her girlfriend Savannah Supski, also 16, to the event at Ivanhoe Girls’ Grammar in Melbourne but the Year 11 student was told she could only attend the ball with a boy.
Hannah told the Sydney Morning Herald that she was “very upset” by the decision.
She added: ”I put a lot of effort into trying to fix things. I had meetings with principals; looked through the Equal Opportunity Act; all my friends put posters up around the school and the teachers ripped them down. There was an easy solution; they just needed to let me go with my girlfriend.”
Her father Peter made a complaint to the Equal Opportunities Commission and met with school officials but decided not to take the case further because Hannah was becoming stressed.
The girls have now decided to move to another school where same-sex couples can attend formal events.
The principal of Ivanhoe Girls’ Grammar, Heather Schnagl, said the aim of the ball was to encourage girls to socialise with boys and said that all the girls would bring female partners if one was allowed to.
She added that age was also an issue as Savannah was 15 and in Year 10 at the time of the event. However, Hannah says her friends attended the event with younger boys.
