The Ministry of Education knew the biggest building at Wellington Girls’ College wasn’t up to earthquake safety standards, but didn’t inform staff or students they were at risk. That’s not good enough, says year 12 student Orla Sweeney.
Wellington Girls’ College is an all-girls school that was considered decile 10 under the old guidelines and had a pretty good reputation. Minimal press coverage, a good NCEA turnout and some quality reviews from others meant that my parents were happy with sending me there.
One thing to note, though, was that when I arrived, WGC had begun to have some huge building issues. In 2019 the main block, Tower, had been found to meet only 15% of New Building Standards (NBS). The school was told it needed to be torn down for safety reasons and that new classes would be put on the field for the time being. Coming from a primary that had been a building site most of my time there, I thought I would be used to the bashes of hammers and the smell of sawdust, so I walked in on my first day of year 9 with my pinafore far below my knees, a backpack half my size, and a pep in my step. So naive.
While I’ve been at WGC, we’ve been hit with some surprisingly rough stuff. A lockdown in year 9, the parliament protests down the road in year 10, and the teacher strikes in year 11. But coming into year 12, I had this quiet confidence that this was our year. No outbreaks, no riots and no strikes. No disruptions. Turns out I was wrong. Very, very wrong.
We were led to believe that our only earthquake-prone building (one under 34% of NBS) was the Pipitea block and that it was still safe to work in. We continued to learn, blissfully unaware that at any moment, a different roof could collapse on us.
In early August, we found out that a large chunk of our current biggest building, which held up to 360 people, met only 15% of NBS. This was discovered by accident in a document the Board of Trustees learned of in which the Ministry of Education suggested the Brook block may be unsafe and earthquake prone.
When the Ministry of Education found out its Wellington headquarters met only 25% of the building standards, they were very quick to move staff to a new building. The ministry has known about our likely earthquake rating since at least 2020. That’s four years during which they could’ve done something, but instead they sat in silence.
A quote from secretary of education Iona Holsted that stood out was, “We will keep our staff updated and connected throughout the process [of what would happen]”. Why were we not updated about our own building, where more than 360 people could’ve been at risk? A fellow year 12 student, Lucy Hansen, had similar thoughts. “Four years they have known about the risk posed to our students and staff, letting us go to school completely oblivious. Four years. Do our lives mean that little to them?”
Why should I feel scared to go to school? I’m pretty sure it’s not a part of the universal high school experience to be afraid that tomorrow will be the day the once-in-a-1,000-year earthquake strikes and the roof collapses on top of me. The ministry has let me down by refusing to address the problem. Our school is already small enough. Unlike our brother school, Wellington College, we do not have a spare field to put prefab classrooms on. The hallways are congested and the heating doesn’t work and the ground is covered in trip hazards. We do not have the time, space or resources to make all these problems go away as quickly and quietly as the Ministry of Education would like.
I’m a student rep, which means we look at the problems in our school and how we can try to lessen them. Once we had come back from derived grades (which had to be held in Sky Stadium due to our lack of space – at least the ministry could arrange this for us), all the reps in my year group got together and had a conversation about what we wanted done. Many suggestions and wishes were thrown into the ring but for most of us it came down to two things. We want the Ministry of Education to apologise and to make a real promise. We deserve a ministry rep to come to our school and assure us that we will get the buildings we deserve. I deserve to go to school in buildings that aren’t at risk of killing me. Future students deserve a school that is safe and sturdy.
We also want the Ministry of Education to say sorry for the way we were treated, and that they will do better. Not only for us, but for all schools across the country. We do not want your apologies that somehow end up pinning the blame on us and absolve all your actions. We want a real apology, where the faults of the Ministry of Education are owned up to by the Ministry of Education. Is that really too much to ask?