La Trobe’s reputation ‘damaged’ by involvement with Safe Schools: professor

A University of Sydney child protection and family law expert has argued La Trobe University’s reputation could be damaged by what he called the “academically irresponsible” conduct of its researchers working for the Safe Schools Coalition. Professor Patrick Parkinson has published a non-peer reviewed paper critical of the Safe Schools Coalition, on the Social Science Research Network website. Safe Schools was co-founded by La Trobe academic Roz Ward, in an effort to make schools safe for LGBTI people. La Trobe researchers are heavily involved in Safe Schools’ Victorian branch. Parkinson said Safe Schools’ resources are full of dodgy claims about sexuality and gender identity in children. He said his paper debunked several of what he called “cherry-picked statistics”, including claims made by Safe Schools that sexual identity is generally fixed in teens. “What [the research] shows is that for some kids [same-sex attraction is] just a phase,” Parkinson told Campus Review. “If you take, for example, the national study of adolescence in the United States, in wave one, a number of the boys said they were same-sex attracted. A year later, they were surveyed again, and only 1 in 10 reported a same-sex attraction at that stage. Those kids have been followed through into their adult years, into their late 20s, and only a tiny fraction of those who said they were same-sex attracted in wave one were still so at wave four. The evidence is clear that, for some, same-sex orientation begins in their early adolescent years and continues to be a fixed and stable trait, but for many others it's not.” Parkinson was previously a member of the New South Wales Child Protection Council and chaired a major review of NSW child protection law. He also served from 2004 to 2007 as chairperson of the Family Law Council, an advisory body to the federal Attorney-General. He has also conducted research that was commissioned by the Australian Christian Lobby, a vocal opponent of Safe Schools. Other statements Parkinson challenged included a claim that 4 per cent of the Australian population is transgender or gender diverse. This is cited in the Safe Schools resource All Of Us. He said this statistic came from New Zealand research, which concluded: “About 1 per cent of students reported that they were transgender. Ninety-six per cent were not transgender and about 3 per cent were not sure.” All of Us was compiled by La Trobe researchers for Safe Schools. Parkinson said that to count those who answer ‘not sure’ as ‘gender diverse’ is “academically irresponsible”. When Campus Review asked if La Trobe's reputation could be damaged by its involvement with Safe Schools, Parkinson responded "it could be". "Some of the research quoted in the Safe Schools materials comes from La Trobe, but even then it's not quoted accurately," Parkinson said. "I do think there's a responsibility on La Trobe, as a university providing materials to school teachers, to make sure it is sound, it is rigorous, it is scientifically based. That's not what's happening. That's a real issue for La Trobe." Responding to Parkinson’s paper, a La Trobe spokesperson said: “As the paper has not yet been peer-reviewed, we have no comment at this time." A spokesperson from Safe Schools said the program's research base is sound. "The research upon which the Safe Schools program has been based is published in multiple peer-review journals and, therefore, is subject to close review by numerous prominent health and education experts in this field," the spokesperson said. "The review commissioned by the Commonwealth Government – [carried out by] one of this country's leading education experts, emeritus professor Bill Louden – has found that the official Safe Schools services and resources are consistent with the intent and objectives of the program and are appropriate for use in schools. A panel of experts has also been appointed to review the resources on a ongoing basis." Louden, a University of Western Australia education expert, along with child health expert professor Donna Cross, was originally commissioned by the federal government to review Safe Schools. Cross dropped out of the review, and Louden was given two weeks to comprehensively review the program. Many Coalition MPs who called for the review were angry with its findings, as it called for some changes to Safe Schools rather than completely scrapping the program.