Outing children as part of a political gamble is violent and despicable. That’s from the Saskatchewan Federation of Labour in reaction to Saskatchewan’s new education policy.
Education minister Dustin Duncan on Tuesday announced a new parental inclusion and consent stating:
- Schools must seek parent/guardian permission when changing the preferred name and pronouns used by students under the age of 16 in the school;
- Parents/guardians must be informed about the sexual health education curriculum and have the option to decline their children’s participation; and,
- Boards of education must immediately pause involvement with any third-party organization, such as ARC Foundation and the SOGI 1 2 3 Program, connected to sexual health education as the ministry undertakes review of educational resources to ensure alignment with curriculum outcomes.
The new policy is also drawing fire from the opposition NDP, whose leader Carla Beck says they “don’t support outing vulnerable kids, which is what this policy will force schools to do. This will lead to worse mental health outcomes for vulnerable kids, and ultimately more self-harm and suicide.”
However, the education ministry in supporting documents deals with:
- privacy to protect the student
- support for the student in making a plan to speak to parents, especially where the student has concerns about how this will be received at home.
- school leadership and principals are to foster a safe, inclusive learning environment for everyone under the rainbow.
The document which includes a generic form to be adapted by school divisions for students to fill out, references several resources including Deepening the Discussion: Gender and Sexual Diversity, Ministry of Education which has been part of the Saskatchewan education curriculum since 2015 and is required reading for all involved in education.
The new policy comes in the wake of the by-election in Lumsden-Morse which was won by the governing party. The Sask Party had campaigned on dealing with the fallout from a Planned Parenthood sexual health resource that was given to Lumsden grade nine students.
