Draft:Renmark High School

Renmark High School is a government-funded, co-educational, comprehensive, secondary day school, located in the town of Renmark, in South Australia, Australia. It is administered by the Department of Education, with an enrolment of 489 students and a teaching staff of 38, as of 2023. The school serves students from Year 7 to Year 12.

History
The opening ceremony of the school occurred on 6 July 1928, with the Minister of Education at the time, Mr. Melntosh, laying the 'foundation stone' of the school.

In 2022, a new program named 'Ngarrindjeri language and culture' was introduced and was well received within the school community.

School stabbing
In July 2018, the school was locked down after it was reported that an altercation between two female students had occurred on the school grounds. 19-year-old Amber Rover, who was suffering undiagnosed schizophrenia, stabbed her best friend, 18-year-old Zoe Fenn, with a long kitchen knife after her English class was dismissed. Fenn suffered a stab wound in the neck. Rover was arrested and remained in custody after a brief hearing at the Adelaide Magistrates Court.

In August 2019, the Berri Magistrates Court granted Rover supervised day release from the secure psychiatric facility she was being held at. She was found not guilty of causing aggravated serious harm due to mental incompetence.

Bestiality and the LGBT community
In April 2024, an incident occurred at the school. It involved a presentation delivered to female Year 9 students by two staff from the Headspace centre in the nearby town of Berri along with a third-party presenter. The third-party presenter facilitated an hour-long presentation that was intended to focus on respectful relationships.

During the presentation, the staff discussed LGBT topics in a way that students described as graphic. The main controversy, however, occurred when the speaker suggested that some people who practice bestiality identify as part of the LGBT community. Many students did not recognise the term, so enquired further, and the speaker described it as when people have sex with animals. Bestiality is an indictable offence in South Australia, with maximum penalty of ten years imprisonment.

The students were allegedly left unsupervised in the presentation, and parents were not consented. The students left the presentation confused and blindsided, and felt uncomfortable and disgusting during the presentation. Many students left the classroom and did not return. It was reported that the students fled to the toilets to escape the presentation.

Parents of the school were also outraged, with some even unenrolling their students due to the incident. One parent stated that the presentation was actually a "huge disservice" to the LGBT community. LGBT advocates also criticised the presentation, referring to the inclusion of zoophiles within the LGBT community as a "slur".

The school's principal, Mat Evans, sent out a letter to parents following the incident, saying the school's normal procedure for notifying parents was not followed and that the presentation was meant to discuss respectful relationships. The third-party presenter has since been banned from all government schools in South Australia. The state's Department for Education issued a similar statement to the school, with chief executive Martin Westwell describing the presentation as "disgusting" and stated that it "shouldn't have happened".

Headspace stated that the organisation had heard concerns from the Renmark and Berri communities, both traditionally conservative rural towns, and that it was providing support to members of the community in need of support.