TWO months on, the Broken Hill Primary Schools Sports Association’s (PSSA) decision to ban all Sacred Heart Parish School students from participating in combined inter-school gala days is no closer to being resolved, with the reason for the exile also under question.
In late November last year a notice was sent to parents of Sacred Heart pupils saying their children, from 2025, will not be welcome at PSSA individual sports carnivals or gala days.
The ban resulted from a PSSA meeting, with group president and Department of Education employee Kate Hogg, approving the decision and citing rising enrolment numbers at the Catholic school as the reason.
In the last two months Ms Hogg has declined multiple offers to be interviewed, referring media to an NSW Department of Education (DoE) spokesperson for comment.
In December, the DoE confirmed Broken Hill PSSA is a zone of the New South Wales PSSA, which includes information on its website that competitions take in Catholic and independent school sporting associations.
The NSW Deputy Premier and Minister for Education and Early Learning Prue Car weighed in on the decision.
Ms Car said her expectation was that the local sporting opportunities be open to everyone, and that talks would be had with the PSSA to rectify the issue.
On Wednesday, January 29, an NSW DoE spokesperson said a final call was still to be made regarding the issue.
“A decision is still to be made around the inclusion of the Catholic school in the local gala days which are held in terms two and three,” the spokesperson said.
“Public school and Catholic school students in the Broken Hill area will both have the opportunity to participate in separate representative sporting pathways when school returns for 2025.”
Sacred Heart principal Trevor Rynne, who had previously said the decision is disappointing, said the school is still in discussions with local PSSA.
Local parent Samantha Breuker said her son Chase Breuker loves sport and used to enjoy attending the gala days and competing in cross country before the ban.
“It’s had a pretty big impact on him because he loves the Gala days, it’s just one of the things he looks forward to,” she said.
“It’s not so much being able to play the sport but being able to be a part of the community, they’ve got friends in all the schools around.
“An opportunity for all of them to get together and have some fun.
“It’s been a big kick-in-the-guts that we’ve been pulled out of it.”
Ms Breuker also said she doesn’t believe the kids were pulled from the PSSA simply due to extra enrolments.
“I just feel like it’s because of all the stuff that had happened in term three,” she said.
Last year former Sacred Heart teacher, Thomas McKeown, is alleged to have committed a range child sex crimes against school pupils.
Mr McKeown’s case is currently working its way through the courts.
“I honestly believe that that’s where it all stemmed from, and I think if that’s what happened, it’s horrible,” Ms Breuker said.
“It is none of those kids’ fault that that has happened, and they shouldn’t be punished like this for it.
“Having Sacred Heart out of the PSSA, it doesn’t get them anywhere.
“Like it’s just literally an opportunity for all the schools to get together and play a sport.
“Don’t punish a whole school just because of one person’s future decisions.”
