Catholic board refuses comment over controversial curriculum issue
The local Catholic school board is refusing to comment on remarks made by Premier Rachel Notley on what she sees as the failings of a proposed, faith-based human health and sex education curriculum put forth by the Council of Catholic School Superintendents of Alberta.
“Under no circumstances will we enforce or condone a sexual health curriculum that normalizes an absence of consent, refuses to talk about contraception and other things that protect the health of sexually active young people, or in any way marginalizes sexual minorities,” said Notley.
Notley was particularly opposed to wording in the proposed curriculum that seemed to suggest a need for sexual consent of both partners was not an absolute.
“Consent is the law in Alberta and under no circumstances will any child in Alberta be taught that they have to somehow accept illegal behaviour in a sexual relationship,” she said. “The end.”
The passages in question on consent were obtained by an Edmonton Journal freedom of information request, and date back to a grant request document written in January from the CCSSA to Alberta Education asking for funds to develop a sexual health curriculum which included more Catholic principles within it.
“We support teaching about legal consent in detail as it is written under the law, as one of several important things which guides our decisions about sexual activity,” it reads. “Legal consent is important but we guard against the reductionist view of our human sexuality that consent is the most important factor in decision-making.”
The passage then goes on to state: “Although consent is always necessary for sexual activity to be healthy, it is not the only threshold that needs to be met in considering choices regarding sexual activity and other important decisions. Integrity between a person’s choice and their personal, family and faith values and legal requirements results in healthy decisions which, in turn, lead to emotional, social, spiritual and physical health.”
The News reached out to several local Catholics involved in the education system, and all refused comment on this issue.
MHCBE board chair Dick Mastel said he was not allowed to speak on the matter and referred the News to Karl Germann of the CCSSA. By press time Germann had not returned a News request for an interview. Requests for interviews were also not returned by local MLAs Drew Barnes and Bob Wanner before press time. The CCSSA did sent out a statement on the situation late Wednesday.
“For the past year,” it reads in part, “representatives from Catholic school districts have been working alongside the government with curriculum development, including the new wellness curriculum. The CCSSA is currently developing a resource to pair with the new provincial wellness curriculum to ensure its seamless implementation, once the province has finished its development. Documents related to these resources were shared with Alberta Education in the spring, at the request of Alberta Education. From what the CCSSA knows, the proposed wellness curriculum is designed to include a variety of perspectives which respects all. All potential human sexuality topics can be taught in Catholic schools, and authentically framed from the Catholic perspective. The CCSSA resource is intended to complement the prescribed the Alberta Education wellness curriculum; it is not intended to replace the provincially mandated outcomes.”