The Toronto District Catholic School Board has become the last in the
province to pass the Equity and Inclusive Education policy, ending a
divisive debate on the policy’s perceived emphasis on sexual
orientation.
After nearly four hours of debate Thursday, the board voted 7-4 to
pass the province-mandated policy.
Introduced in 2009, it requires all
publicly funded schools to address “ongoing incidents of discrimination”
by the 2011-12 school year.
This includes Catholic and French-language
schools, which are publicly funded in Ontario.
The province identifies homophobia and cyberbullying as major
concerns, but some Catholic parents aren’t happy that sexual orientation
is identified as a form of discrimination in the board’s policy, which
aims to “improve student achievement, well-being and to close
achievement gaps for students by identifying, addressing and removing
all barriers and forms of discrimination.”
Christians are taught to “love the sinner and hate the sin,” said
Jacquie Guerron, chairwoman of the Roman Catholic Parents Coalition.
Five of her six children are enrolled at TDCSB elementary and high
schools and she does not approve of children openly discussing
homosexuality in the classroom.
“They cannot come and tell us what we should teach our children and
tell our children that it’s OK to have two moms and two dads and to have
homosexual relationships and that sex [outside of marriage] is not a
sin,” she said.
The Catechism of the Catholic Church defines homosexual acts as
“intrinsically disordered,” and implores homosexuals to be chaste.
Over the course of a weekend, Ms. Guerron and members of the
coalition gathered nearly 2,400 signatures requesting the TDCSB trustees
vote to reject or amend the board’s draft policy.
The petition
requested that trustees add explicit language that requires “full
teaching of the church regarding homosexual acts” when sexual
orientation is discussed, to “eliminate ambiguity around secular terms”
like homophobia, and to “elimiate sexual orientation as a prohibited
ground for discrimination.”
Board chairwoman Ann Andrachuck said the agenda was “hijacked” by
people looking to identify specific groups within the policy.
The school
board has always had policies in place to protect all students from
discrimination, she said, but adjusted its guidelines to fall in line
with provincial requirements.
“When you start identifying individual
groups, you essentially segregate and you’re not being inclusive in the
policy,” she said. “We have to address the needs of all, but it would be
inappropriate to start segregating and identifying individual groups
within the policy.”
Though Ms. Guerron claims the policy will affect the way children are
taught, Ms. Andrachuck said this is misinformation.
“We can’t stop
people from saying what they want to say, but what we taught in school
yesterday before we passed this policy is exactly what we’re teaching
today and next week and going forward.”
Gay-straight alliances, or GSAs, are still banned in TDCSB schools.
Students at St. Joseph Catholic Secondary School in Mississauga, in
the Dufferin-Peel board, faced bullying and online threats after going
public with their intention to start a gay-straight alliance earlier
this year, but still plan to hold an anti-homophobia event at the school
on June 3.
For a more illustrated example, Halton Catholic District School Board
chairwoman Alice Ann Lemay told Xtra that the board “doesn’t allow Nazi
groups either. Gay-straight alliances are banned because they are not
within the teachings of the Catholic Church.”
She later apologized.
For her part, Ms. Andrachuck said the Toronto Catholic board “doesn’t
recommend the development of any specific type of groups” that are
contrary to the teachings of the church.