Suit is all about fighting inclusive teaching

RE: Parent’s battle is about freedom to choose (July 8)

This article refers to a suit brought against the Hamilton public school board seeking a ruling that the plaintiff has a right to pull his kids from class if the subject material clashes with his moral or religious beliefs, in particular the discussion of LGBTQ issues as per the current provincial sex-education curriculum. The plaintiff is backed by the Parental Rights in Education Defense Fund, a poorly-defined organization with fundamentalist Christian and anti-LGBTQ views operating from a website and postal box in Toronto.

The board’s position is that religious accommodation for sex education has a defined process, but this is not the case in equity policy where the emphasis is on an inclusive society in terms of gender, sexuality, ethnicity, religion or any other form of diversity. Exempting students from learning about this has the potential to harm other students directly and society as a whole.

This article makes the bizarre claim that the suit is about a person’s right to believe in a soul. It’s not; it’s about society’s right to set an educational curriculum that acknowledges diversity and teaches diversity in an appropriate and inclusive way. The outcome is important as we could end up like Alberta where legislation now requires school boards to give parents written notice when controversial topics are going to be covered. This makes teachers hesitant to include contentious subjects in their lesson plans, fearing a human rights complaint. Of course, that is exactly the outcome the Parental Rights in Education Defense Fund wants. John Lafferty, Ancaster