A Perth boarding school has come under fire from students and parents for inviting a Christian organisation to speak with its students about sexuality and marriage ahead of the postal vote.
St Brigid's College in Lesmurdie invited the Loving for Life organisation to deliver a Christian educational program on sexuality and relationships to its year 11 and year 12 students, and a number of parents and students have hit out the school for not informing them of the program's contents.
While Christian sexual education programs are common in Catholic high schools, they often require parent-signed consent forms in order for students to participate.
However, one parent said they were not given any parental consent form to sign before the seminars commenced on Wednesday and said her daughter had came home "very upset" after there was a conversation surrounding marriage equality.
"The kids came out of the program saying it seemed they were urged to vote no, and they were obviously pretty upset," she said.
"They said they were told about how marriage should be between a man and a woman and why that's the case, and of course there's a few girls in the class who are gay, and they said they just felt completely unsupported by their school.
"Why would they come out to the school the week the postal vote was sent out? I don't believe [it was a coincidence] for a second."
A number of students took to social media to voice their concerns regarding the talk and its timing at the school, and one post gathered almost 200 comments.
"We were told that we had to respect their personal Catholic opinion but any time that one of us had our own opinions during this 'open discussion', we were shut down, ignored and told we were wrong," one girl said.
"Respect is a two-way street and therefore both sides of the story should be respected. We were then shown a video with coloured circles which 'represented homosexuals', which told us how changing the law would 'affect the normal coloured circles'.
"It is absolutely ridiculous to judge people for who they are... nobody should try to enforce their beliefs on you... I highly commend and respect everybody for speaking up today and sticking up for what they thought was right."
Another commenter alleged the speakers referred to same-sex marriage as "gay-rriage', and said there had been widespread outrage from the students at the timing of the presentation.
"One of the ladies said 'people who are gay are getting marriage and a relationship confused," another said.
A spokesman for the Loving for Life organisation confirmed the program had been invited by St Brigids College, and they gave a presentation to the girls on Wednesday afternoon.
It is understood there was nothing in the program that differed from its usual contents, and he believed the presenters involved had not spoken about the upcoming postal vote.
On its website, the Loving for Life program aims to develop "an awareness of Christian sexuality and relationships", and advocates the importance of "creating [a] family with ongoing benefits for society."
"All programs provide researched, accurate, up to date and relevant material and information. All material of a scientific or medical nature is reviewed by the Loving for Life Medical Advisory Board," their website states.
"All programs are accessed by the Catholic Education Office of WA and approved by Father Joe Parkinson before being presented within Catholic schools. Loving for Life programs are delivered by facilitators who must fulfil accreditation requirements and ongoing professional development."
The website also quotes Pope Francis' definition of marriage: "the union of a man and woman in marriage is a unique, natural, fundamental good for persons, families, communities and whole societies".
While many year 11 girls are too young to vote in the postal survey, some year 12 students are over the age of 18 and will receive their mail-out over the next few weeks.
The girls have since put up posters supporting marriage equality around the school.
In a statement, St Brigid's Principal Dr Amelia Toffoli said parents were advised in writing of the Loving for Life presentation.
"The College has no intention of influencing individual family decisions in relation to the Marriage Equality postal survey, nor does it endorse programs that are intended to politicise important social matters affecting its community," Dr Toffoli said.
"We continue to uphold the dignity of every human person as a fundamental belief,
"St Brigid's College seeks to provide a learning environment that supports students to develop as critical thinkers, who are able to consider and respect diverse viewpoints and contribute meaningfully to their communities whilst understanding Catholic teaching on important issues, such as the Church's teaching on marriage.
"The College is also fully committed to the role of parents and carers as the first educators of their children, and encourages them to take an active role in their child's education.
"We encourage parents and carers to discuss issues with their children, and we work in partnership with parents in relation to programs offered at the College."
The Catholic Education Office has also been contacted for comment.