Court to decide within weeks on parent group’s appeal over rejected petition

The court should make a ruling in the coming weeks on the legality of SD76’s rejection of a petition from local community members to force a public meeting with the school board in order to voice their opposition to and amend policies 621 and 622.

A hearing was held in the Medicine Hat courthouse last Friday to determine whether SD76 acted lawfully in rejecting the petition. Dozens showed up in court to watch the proceedings, most sporting “Include Parents” pins representing the complainants’ anger at not being heard on policies 621 and 622.

These policies, passed last year, were intended to protect public school students from discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity, and to ensure safe environments at school for LGBTQ students. The SD76 board had passed the policies to comply with the provincial government’s directive on these matters.

The petition was rejected back in September by SD76 on the grounds that 110 of the 2,039 submitted signatures were deemed ineligible to vote. According to Section 269 of the Alberta School Act, a petition to force a public meeting requires a minimum of 2,000 signatures of valid electors in the school district, or 25 per cent of parents who are electors at a school. An additional 259 signatures were rejected, according to SD76, because they did not list a valid address or postal code within SD76 electoral boundaries.

It is the exclusion of these signatures which is under dispute in the court case.