Catholic school board rethinks project ban
The Ottawa Catholic School Board is reconsidering its decision to ban a project on gay rights by two Grade 6 students at St. George elementary school, a ban the board’s director says has been “misconstrued.”
The principal “had some concerns about the age appropriateness of the material the kids wanted to present,” director of education Julian Hanlon said Friday.
“But what’s being portrayed in the media is that we’re not allowing the presentation because it was on gay rights, and that’s absolutely and categorically incorrect.”
The students, Quinn MaloneyTavares and Polly Hamilton, had planned to examine gay rights in a project for a January Social Justice Fair that would be seen by students in Grades 4 to 6. St. George principal Ann Beauchamp vetoed the project.
In a statement on Friday, board chairman Ted Hurley said he had reviewed the matter “in the full context of promoting fairness, bullying prevention and Catholic teaching with regard to gay rights.
“The Holy Father, Pope Francis, has made it clear that our attitudes to gay and lesbian people should be addressed with love and dignity in an open and transparent way, when he said, ‘Who am I to judge?’”
He said concern about age-appropriateness of the subject matter for Grade 4 and 5 students drove the decision to disallow the presentation.
“What has since become clear, however, is that the motives behind the planned presentation by the two young girls were simply to combat the kinds of behaviour and attitudes that can lead to bullying of gay people, and violations of human rights,” Hurley’s statement said.
Hurley’s statement said the principal will be inviting the students and their parents in “for a follow up discussion to resolve this matter” adding that “we support the students’ sense of fair play and respect for all persons.”
Ann Maloney, Quinn’s mother, said although the statement stopped short of saying the girls will be allowed to do their project about gay rights, she’s hopeful that they will.
“We absolutely hope that it means the girls can do their project,” she said Friday evening. “Social justice is about people who are oppressed, and gay people have been oppressed in society and continue to be,” she said. “That’s all that the kids want to do. It’s a kid-friendly, kid-appropriate topic to do.”
She said the kids have learned a lot from the experience already: “That you don’t have to walk away: that if you do something, there can be change. That’s the exciting part for them.”
She said she has yet to receive an invitation to sit down with the principal, but looks forward to the meeting. “This is not a personal attack at all,” she said. “It’s about an issue, not about a person.”
Hanlon was out of town all week and has not been able to speak to Beauchamp about her decision. He said Beauchamp vetoed the project after speaking to the girls and going over some of the materials they intended to include in their presentation.
“She’s an excellent principal with lots of experience and if she was making a judgment and she must have had cause for concern,” Hanlon said.
The Citizen’s story about the controversy has generated hundreds of reader comments. Some have come from parents at St. George with relatives in same-sex relationships.
A gay Catholic high school teacher emailed St. George’s school trustee Betty-Ann Kealey (and copied the Citizen) to say he was “appalled” by the principal’s actions.
“As a gay man who adopted three children, and as a teacher in a Catholic school, I’m appalled to see that we are telling kids that it is not OK to talk about being gay, gay culture and gay rights. Grade 6 is not too early to start talking about these subjects,” he wrote.
Maloney said the story has got a lot bigger than she thought it was going to get. “A lot of people in the community have reached out to us, and we are feeling incredibly supported,” she said.
Hanlon said he wasn’t surprised to see the story had stirred such interest.
“Unfortunately, as the Catholic school system we’re portrayed as being not open to views that might be in opposition to the Catholic Church. But the fact is, we’re a very accepting school board and don’t try to stifle discussions about issues like that — but we do try to keep in mind the teachings of the Catholic Church.”
Meanwhile, the girls’ project caught the attention of Tone Cluster, a gay choir in Ottawa, which has invited them and their families to be guests of honour at the choir’s Quite a Queer Christmas concert on Dec. 13.
“What these girls have done is really quite remarkable,” said choir president Rob Bowman.
“To want to do a topic such as this one — even when encountering resistance — to stand up for their rights and to explore the idea of diversity and the LGBTQ community ... is amazing.”
The 35-member choir has members ranging in age from their late 20s to in their 60s, he said. That girls so young would want to highlight gay rights is touching, he said.