Public trustee pushes for better sex-ed
The debate about the adequacy of Alberta’s sexual health curriculum will continue Tuesday as an Edmonton Public Schools trustee wants her colleagues to push for improvements.
Trustees will debate a motion by Bridget Stirling suggesting the public school board lobby the provincial Education Ministry for “evidence-based, age-appropriate, medically accurate, comprehensive, consent-based, and inclusive sexual health education in the provincial curriculum.”
Alberta’s existing sexual health curriculum in Grades 4-9 and the high school Career and Life Management class are too broad, and include no requirements to teach about giving consent for sexual contact, all options to prevent pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections, or information for LGBTQ students, Stirling said.
“It’s really important for us to be science and evidence-based around sexual health,” said Stirling, who has previously worked as an educator for a sexual health centre.
Stirling ’s motion also calls on her colleagues to advocate for government to develop provincial guidelines for schools that bring in outside presenters for sex education.
This month, a Red Deer Catholic school came under scrutiny after a student recorded a video presented by a pro-life group that compared abortion to the Holocaust.
Stirling said she’s also seen videos used in classrooms that included inaccurate information about condom failure rates, and that claimed there were procedural differences between elective and medically necessary abortions.
Edmonton Public Schools faced criticism in 2014 when a mother and daughter complained about pro-life groups giving mandatory abstinence talks to junior and senior high classes. The district now has a list of approved groups it considers appropriate, Stirling said.
Schools often turn to outside presenters when teachers feel illequipped to teach about human sexuality, she said.
Although more sex education resources and professional development are now available for Edmonton Public teachers, that guidance isn’t consistent across the province, Stirling said.
Last week, a divided Edmonton Catholic school board defeated a proposal by trustee Marilyn Bergstra to lobby government for more comprehensive sex education.
Alberta’s K-12 curriculum is currently being reviewed and rewritten. Education Minister David Eggen has said it will include updated sex education.