Ontario parents opposed to sex ed changes threaten to pull kids from school
New sex-ed curriculum could be used against federal Liberals in upcoming election, Kathleen Wynne says
A group of Ontario parents is threatening to pull their kids out of school this week, in protest of the province's new sex-education curriculum.
A Facebook group called "Parents & Students on strike: one week no school" is encouraging parents who oppose the 2015 sex-ed curriculum to keep their kids at home.
The group also offers a letter template for parents to give to their children's respective schools, which states the curriculum contains "age-inappropriate" content that does not align with the "principles and beliefs" of families.
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Toronto District School Board spokeswoman Shari Schwartz-Maltz said it's difficult to determine how many families will participate in the protest, because in some cases parents have downloaded the letters and handed them in ahead of time, but in other cases it's been done verbally "so the numbers are next to impossible to know" until midday on Monday.
"Everybody that's not in school will be marked absent and teaching and learning continues. So if you are not present in class, we're following the same policies we do in any other case," said Schwartz-Maltz. "Children/families are responsible for the work missed."
The templated letter also states that parents believe it is their responsibility to teach these values to their children, in addition to having complete control over when the topic is first introduced.
Misinformation intentionally circulated
"We live in a democracy and people are permitted to protest and voice their opinions and this is clearly the way some parents feel is the best way to express their opinions," Schwartz-Maltz said.
"We'll have to see what the numbers are. A lot of people say they're going to do it, we'll see what happens. We're prepared in the sense that all of our people know about it."
Janet McDougald, chair of the Peel District School Board, said she thinks a "fair number" of parents will pull their children out of school for at least the first day of the week in the culturally diverse region.
Thousands protested the new sex-ed curriculum, which was previously updated in 1998, on the lawn of the legislature last month and many said they came from communities within Peel Region. But McDougald says there's a lot of misinformation being intentionally circulated about the curriculum.
'Wedge issue' in upcoming election
Under the changes, Grade 3 students will learn about same-sex relationships, kids in Grades 4 and up will learn more about the dangers of online bullying, while the perils of sexting will come in Grade 7.
Some opponents of the curriculum say it's not age-appropriate, others insist children should not be taught about same-sex relationships and different gender identities, while still others wrote on the Facebook group that the curriculum is full of "deviant sexual practices" and amounts to "child abuse."
Premier Kathleen Wynne met privately last week with a group of parents who demanded she withdraw the curriculum. She said it will take effect in September as planned.
Even though education is a provincial jurisdiction, Wynne said she has been warned that the curriculum could be used against the federal Liberals in the upcoming election campaign.
"I have been told that this is something that could be used as a wedge issue," she said recently in Ottawa. "I think that we just need to be aware of that and we need to all be armed with the facts."