Board pushes back against sex-ed changes
Hamilton-Wentworth District School Board trustees vote unanimously to petition province to keep 2015 curriculum
Hamilton Wentworth District School Board trustees have joined the chorus of boards across Ontario speaking out about the province’s decision to revert to a two-decade-old sex-ed curriculum.
HWDSB chair Todd White says trustees unanimously voted Tuesday afternoon to officially request that the province maintain the 2015 curriculum, adding that the province’s decision to roll back sex-ed lessons to the 1998 curriculum has left the board scrambling to determine what students will actually be taught in classrooms this September.
“The direction to roll back the curriculum to the 1998 version was met with quite a bit of concern in Hamilton,” he said.
The HWDSB has joined 20 boards across the province which are appealing to the Ministry of Education for clarity on what educators are to teach this fall, given the confusing messages from key government ministers.
The old sex-ed curriculum, which was taught until 2014, does not mention issues of consent, cyberbullying, sexting or samesex marriage.
While the board can’t officially dictate curricula — they’re solely the jurisdiction of the province — Tuesday’s motion also states that teachers who wish to cover the topics omitted in the 1998 curriculum will be provided with resources to support those lessons. Teachers can’t test students on issues not included in the 1998 curriculum, but they can include those issues in their classroom discussions, White said.
In their motion, trustees also urged staff to look for ways to promote equity and inclusion in schools, including posters and other messaging.
White points out that there’s been no information from the province about whether the change affects the entire physical health education curriculum — which includes everything from gym class to healthy foods and lifestyle — or just the component that deals with sex-ed.
“Right now, from our point of view, we still don’t have a lot of clarity from them about what we should do in September,” he said.
White added that school boards usually get a full policy memorandum when curricula are changed, but “that hasn’t happened yet.”
Education Minister Lisa Thompson, who has ducked reporters on the issue since mid-July, said Monday that “teachers are going to be going back to what they taught in 2014, and they’re familiar with that curriculum.”