I don't envy the life of a school principal trying to maintain any sense of standard, discipline or tradition in today’s increasingly “anything goes” society.

Even if you are running a private, Christian school, it seems it’s not okay by some to enforce basic principles of your faith.

That’s if some of the reaction to the story about Brisbane’s Anglican Church Grammar School refusing to allow their students to take gay partners to the formal is anything to go by.

The school is at the centre of a media storm after a Brisbane newspaper ran a headline, “School bans gay couples” on the weekend.

The paper’s website has been inundated with comments from both sides of the debate – some strongly arguing in favour of the school’s right to set its own policies, while others are condemning it as discriminatory, hypocritical, judgmental and even anti-Christian.

Churchie headmaster, Jonathan Hensman, maintains the senior dinner dance is an “opportunity for our young men to escort a young woman in a formal school environment.

“We don’t intend to change our practice ... the school decides what is appropriate and what is not.”

Head of the Anglican church Dr Philip Aspinall said while any gay student at any school should be treated with the utmost respect, he told ABC radio: “It’s a great pity if too much emphasis is being put on sexual relationships (for the formal). Most people who go to a school formal go with a friend and there is no sexual relationship involved.”

Gay students are now talking about boycotting the event – a move welcomed by some bloggers who said they should leave the formal out of their push to have gays more accepted in the school community.

While the issue of one’s sexuality is surely a personal decision, surely a school has the right to enforce its own standards and preferences – rather than being dictated to by state authorities, students or lobbyists who claim discrimination.

Private schools by their nature – including their high fees – automatically discriminate, and when parents send their children to such schools it is usually with the understanding that certain values and principles are followed.

If you are a Muslim and you send your children to a Muslim school, you would surely have a right to expect Muslim customs and traditions are respected.

Students behind the current Churchie protest are obviously seeking to make a stand for the gay rights they believe in – but I wonder whether they risk generating more public disquiet than sympathy by using the school formal in June as the bargaining chip.

One student claims while two years ago there was not one student who was openly gay in the all boys school, now there are dozens.

Dr Aspinall is, of course, right in maintaining that all people, regardless of sexuality, should be treated with tolerance and respect, but does that mean the church or the school has to water down its own standards to allow boys to take boys to the formal?

And what about the rights of other students to enjoy a formal which is not marred by protest and division not just within the student community – but also the entire community?

Travel green

There's nothing like a summer of miserable weather to make you really appreciate the perfect conditions the Sunshine Coast enjoyed at the weekend.

Coast beaches were well populated not only with interstate tourists looking to make the most of our surf and sunshine but also many local families feeling somewhat robbed of the usual amount of sunshine we experience.

While there are increasing concerns about the amount of development happening here on the Coast – and rightly so – we shouldn’t allow ourselves to be whipped into an hysteria that we are becoming another Gold Coast.

You only have to look at vast tracts of national parks, our beaches, rivers, parkland – and indeed better developed housing estates to know the Sunshine Coast has got an awful lot going for it.

As Coast residents, we need to project a positive outlook about what this region has to offer.

While our road systems are a shocking failure at peak times, things are starting to improve.

Better bus services, together with major road upgrades, will see improvements in the next few years.

But a lot is yet to be done – and one of the biggest issues is ensuring we provide a public transport system of buses and trains which are not only easy to use but also affordable.

If the Coast is to maintain its natural beauty, we have to get a lot smarter about the way we get from A to B.

And that may even mean losing the expectation many of us have that we will always be able to drive to our favourite beach.

As the Coast population continues to grow, we may one day make the journey to our biggest beaches by small buses to ensure that we don’t destroy the environment we all have come to enjoy.