'Fear mongering' kept 1,000 kids home from Winnipeg school division, superintendent says

A co-ordinated effort of hate and intolerance left a Winnipeg school division with more than 1,000 student absences on Wednesday, the division's superintendent says.

"The rumour that was spread was that schools were going to be distributing sexually explicit literature that day, which is just honestly nonsense," said Brian O'Leary, superintendent of Seven Oaks School Division.

The majority of the students who stayed home were from the division's large South Asian community. There was pressure by some people within that community, spread via social media, for parents to keep their kids at home, O'Leary said.

It happened on the same day that hundreds of people took part in the "1 Million March 4 Children" protest against LGBTQ-inclusive education and sexual education policies in schools. Protests took place in communities across Canada, and there were confrontations with counter-protesters, including in Winnipeg.

"We had parents telling us, I'd rather send my kid to the school but I'm feeling pressure in the community," O'Leary said.

That prompted him to write a letter — in English, Punjabi and Hindi — and send it division-wide to all parents.

"We are concerned that misinformation is penetrating our communities and may be causing unrest and fear among the public," O'Leary said in the letter.

He included a link to the Manitoba Education curriculum for parents to see exactly what is being taught in the division's 27 schools.

"We wanted to begin to correct that misinformation and let parents know that we really missed their kids and that their kids missed a wonderful day of school," O'Leary said in an interview Thursday morning.

"What we're about with kids is helping them to develop an empathy and understanding of others, whether the others are different skin colour, race, religion or sexual orientation. It's really just saying, people are people and be proud of who you are, and let other people be proud of who they are."

After initially characterizing the rumours as misinformation, O'Leary doubled back and said that word is too generous.

"It would be more accurate to call it fear mongering," he said.

The vast majority of students who did not attend school on Wednesday were in the elementary age group, he said.

The older students made up their own minds and went to school, he said.

"Little kids are colour-blind. They accept everybody. Hate is learned and, unfortunately, hate is taught in some homes," O'Leary said.

That was part of the driving force behind his decision to send the letter.

"I think if we let things like this go, then we're kind of sanctioning behaviour that really, to be blunt, educates kids into hatred," O'Leary said.

"We want schools to be places where kids develop bigger hearts, not smaller ones."

Seven Oaks has about 12,000 students in 21 elementary and middle schools and six high schools. It takes in the Winnipeg neighbourhoods of West Kildonan, Garden City, the Maples, Riverbend and Amber Trails, as well as the rural municipality of West St. Paul. 

"We're pretty transparent about what goes on in school. If you've got a question, come in and ask. The teachers are always available, administrators are always available," O'Leary said.

The decision to send the letter to every parent in the division, in retrospect, might not have been the best choice, he said. It inadvertently caused concern for parents whose children did attend class, wondering why they received a letter saying "we missed your kid today," he said.

"We apologize to those parents and we'll clarify that, but we did want awareness of this in the community."

He also wants parents to know the effort to reduce hate of all kinds will continue.

"We want kids to grow up into a world that is gentler and kinder and more understanding. That's our work on truth and reconciliation, that's our work on anti-racism and that's our work on homophobia," O'Leary said.

"That's not the main curriculum. That's just alongside learning to read and do math and think well."