April 09, 2018
Pomare holds out for Hato Petera resurrection
The mother of the last student at Hato Petera says hundreds of other whanau would send their tamariki there if they had the chance.
A meeting was held at the school on Auckland’s North Shore on Sunday after Stephanie Pomare’s plight became known, with people pledging to fight moves by the Auckland Catholic Diocese and the Education Ministry to remove the school’s integrated status and close it down.
Phyllis Pomare says the Pomare whanau has a long connection to the school, and when its new commissioner appointed at the start of the year offered tauira the chance to transfer to other schools, the 14-year-old opted to stay put.
"Hato Petera is her kaumatua and he guides her education, she won’t leave him behind and she won’t let him fall. That’s all she thinks of, ‘I’m not leaving before someone helps us,’ so she doesn’t know she is protesting. All she knows is she is going to school and she is going to learn and that’s all," she says.
Phyllis Pomare says the support which has come in since Stephanie’s plight became known is overwhelming, and she hopes it can be translated into pressure on the school’s proprietor and the wider Catholic church.
Copyright © 2018, UMA Broadcasting Ltd: www.waateanews.com