STAIRWAY TO HEAVEN?

How to apologise “AUTHENTICALLY”… (an instructional video)

A big hats off to you, the community for standing up last night at the Somerville House P&F meeting.

It was a big turn-out, and it would have been even bigger if the dozens and dozens of people who tried to take advantage of the phone ‘dial in’ facilities could have joined. That’s not the fault of the hard working Somerville House P&F team – who managed with the facilities that they were given access to. It was just a shame that technical difficulties prevented so many concerned members of the Somerville House community from being involved. Hopefully future P&F meetings will be set up to allow material numbers of community members to dial in.

It was, we are told, a fiery event at times, with so many of you standing up and telling it like it is to PMSA representatives who were in attendance. Running the gauntlet on the issue of “authentically apologising” for past actions was necessary. Ironically, the message didn’t seem to be cutting through with our Church-owned governing body.

The community put it to the PMSA representatives in attendance that the ‘Statement’ of Apology to Flo Kearney (that was released by the PMSA last week) was not authentically disseminated and should be distributed to all current parents of Somerville House and all parents and students of 2017 (including the Year 12 student cohort of 2017). The meeting decided that this was not only appropriate but necessary, and this position was accepted and agreed to by the PMSA representatives in attendance (after they left the room to deliberate). The community views this as a firm undertaking and it seems that the first step in that process, being the publication of the Statement in the Somerville House Newsletter today, was achieved. We hope that full email communication to all members of the community and the 2017 cohort and the proper “send off” and recognition for Flo now rolls out as agreed.

This is great news for Mrs Kearney ! Take a bow Somerville House community for not backing down !!

And well done to the PMSA representatives there last night who changed their minds after listening to the passion in the room. Perhaps they really “felt” the emotion and finally understood that there is a “right” way to “re-build” a broken community – not just a “legal” way?? Perhaps after getting smacked down they convinced themselves that the adopted decision was all their own idea after all? We don’t really care “how” they justify it to themselves - we’re all just glad for the result for Flo Kearney - which we hope will be carried through and completed exactly as agreed with everyone at the meeting.

So we reckon that the PMSA are almost up to step 3 in the “12 step programme” with last night’s effort… (almost). Step 4 on the ‘Stairway to Heaven’ for us all is “true self awareness”, which can only come with an authentic apology to the REST of the community as well. Yes, apologising doesn’t just stop with Flo !

The meeting tried to make that point last night, but it appears to have been somewhat misunderstood by the PMSA? After 19 long months, the entire community and the Somerville House Year 12 cohort from 2017 deserve a proper apology as well.

We acknowledge that the PMSA communique today stated that “We recognise ‘THIS’ deeply affected many in our community and we apologise.” Thanks. We presume that the reference to the word ‘THIS’ (to describe the object of the apology) means the community’s views about the insufficient publication of the apology negotiated with Flo Kearney.

A community apology of the type which we all hope is the NEXT step from the PMSA needs to contain a very clear recognition of “what” actions the PMSA are apologising for and an understanding of their effect on the community.

We do hear your pain in understanding this PMSA. It must sound like semantics, but we promise its not. It’s very important. So we have decided to help out with this free (tongue in cheek, but nonetheless accurate) ‘instructional video’ to help you along the way. It really is all about being authentic and getting in touch with how you “feel” about your actions.

So sit back, take a load off and watch how it should be done – with authenticity.

Check it out here: Video Link

Oh, and seriously well done for your efforts today.

With love from your Sponsors !

We are not going away !

Beyond PMSA