Leave my son out of row, says Cambridge head boy's dad

By MARTIN JOHNSTON and STUART DYE

The father of Cambridge High School's high-profile head boy wants all sides in the dispute over its former principal to leave his son alone.

Property developer David Searle said his son Oliver, 18, had been used as a pawn.

He said Oliver had been caught between former principal Alison Annan, acting principal Jim Bennett and Dennis Finn, the Government-appointed limited statutory manager.

"I would like them to leave my son alone so he can get back to being a student," Mr Searle said.

Mrs Annan resigned on August 13 after problems at the school, including Qualifications Authority criticism of its use of untrained teachers and its "achievement recovery" programme.

The programme aimed to help students gain catch-up credits, delivering what the authority has called questionable educational benefit.

More than 500 of the school's 1200 students marched through Cambridge last Monday to protest against Mrs Annan's treatment.

On Thursday - days after defending the school and Mrs Annan at the Youth Parliament in Wellington - Oliver Searle helped the school by taking an economics class when the usual teacher was on sick leave.

Mr Finn was quoted as saying the class was inadvertently left without a teacher, but David Searle said he understood that Oliver's taking the class was authorised the day before.

His son had become too tangled up in the dispute.

"He was the one who lowered the flag on the Friday afternoon when the boss resigned. He organised the protest march. He was the one who took on the Cabinet minister [Steve Maharey] and the Speaker of the House [Jonathan Hunt] last Monday in Wellington.

"I will be telling Oliver about trying to concentrate on his studies because it's only so many weeks away till his exams."


Mr Finn said yesterday that he could not agree more with David Searle. "There are big exams coming up and I have absolutely no wish for [Oliver] to be in the mix of politics."

Mr Finn denied that Oliver had been authorised to oversee the class.