Covid 19 Coronavirus: Jacinda Ardern and Papatoetoe High School Principal Vaughan Couillault Have ‘Frank and Open’ Talk About Blaming Families with Covid

Papatoetoe High School principal Vaughan Couillault says he has had a “frank” discussion with Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern about blaming Covid-infected families for spreading the virus.

Couillault, whose school has been at the center of the latest Covid outbreak that has infected 15 people so far, received a call from Ardern on Tuesday.

“She thanked me for my leadership in this pandemic and recognized that as the principal of the school I did not sign up for the public scrutiny that I have experienced in recent weeks,” he said.

Ardern and Couillault have publicly taken contrasting positions on whether some of the Papatoetoe families who caught Covid-19 were at fault for spreading it to others.

Ardern said Monday that “rule breakers” face “the full judgment of the entire nation.”

The mother of one of the infected families went for a walk with the mother of another family after being told to isolate herself. Later, a 21-year-old college student from the second family went to a gym after getting tested for Covid.

“No one in the Cabinet … thinks this is tolerable. What has happened here is a clear gap and everyone is frustrated by it,” Ardern said.

On the contrary, Couillault has urged people not to be too quick to judge.

“Until you’ve put yourself in someone’s shoes, you don’t know what they’re experiencing,” he said.

“People who have potentially not followed that advice and guidance are suffering, they are suffering and I don’t know of any New Zealander who wants to deliberately hurt another even more.”

He said he and Ardern had “a meaningful conversation about what we’ve both experienced and what we can potentially learn from this,” even if the families involved are to be blamed.

“We had a very frank and open discussion, the prime minister and I, and we have common views on several things,” he said.

“We had a really good conversation. It was lovely. I was honored.

“The Prime Minister called to thank him for his contribution to this work and to acknowledge the work my team had done to support the containment effort, and then to offer the opportunity to provide feedback on how we can improve if this situation manifests itself again with another person.

“I will be in contact with your office on how we can provide feedback.”