THE CATHOLIC Diocese of Maitland-Newcastle has called on authors of an online petition, aimed at schools director Gerard Mowbray, to "redirect their efforts".
The change.org petition, which has amassed more than 4000 signatures since it was created on April 27, calls on Mr Mowbray to "stand up" and "insist St Peter's and St Mary's return to having dedicated Assistant Principals at each school and that St Mary's remains open".
Titled Stand up and fight for us, Gerard, it is the second petition created by the Save St Mary's Action Group in the wake of a 2021 review which recommended the merging of All Saints' campuses and closure of St Mary's.
Mr Mowbray was principal at St Mary's from 2006 to 2007, a fact the petition's authors mention when saying he "knows how much the Maitland community values [the] school".
"We have been terribly disappointed that Gerard has not attempted to publicly argue against the absurd decision of CEO Sean Scanlon and the trustees to close St Mary's," the petition reads.
"Whatever Gerard has achieved in his 40 plus years of Catholic education could now be overshadowed by his failure thus far to publicly stand up for St Mary's."
While the Diocese chose not to respond directly to the content of the latest petition, a spokesperson told the Newcastle Herald the authors continue to "repurpose Diocesan-owned materials without consent".
"The unnamed authors of the petition continue to post misleading content and routinely publish images of staff and students from across the Diocese of Maitland-Newcastle, without their permission," the Diocesan spokesperson said.
"We encourage the anonymous authors of the change.org petition to redirect their efforts into constructively contributing to this process."
