‘We need responsible sex ed’
Opponents of the curriculum applaud PCs’ move to repeal and replace,
Christina Liu was happy to hear that Ontario’s sex education curriculum has been repealed and will be replaced by the Progressive Conservative government.
“We need to have responsible sex ed in the school to prevent our children from irresponsible behaviours,” said Liu, president of the Parents Alliance of Ontario and mother of two.
The sex ed curriculum, which includes lessons on same-sex relationships, gender identity, cyberbullying and sexting, was implemented in 2015 by then-Premier Kathleen Wynne’s Liberals. Polling in 2015 suggested that about half of Ontarians backed the change.
Repealing the sex ed curriculum was a campaign promise Premier Doug Ford made within two days of being elected leader of the Ontario PC Party. The previous curriculum, from 1998, will be taught when students return to school in September.
Liu said she’d like to see a sex ed curriculum that is sensible and “easier for the kids to understand.”
“I heard many, many kids come back to say that was disgusting,” she said. “They don’t feel comfortable to sit in a classroom while a teacher teaches sexual health without consideration of their age and their emotions.”
Mary Ellen Douglas, a mother and grandmother who works as national organizer for the Campaign Life Coalition, said she is “absolutely delighted” that the sex ed curriculum will be scrapped and replaced.
“We have a premier who says what he means and does what he says, and that is great,” she said. “He promised to do this and he’s carrying through with his promise very quickly.”
Douglas raised five children and will have 14 grandchildren by the end of the summer. “I’m very concerned about what they learn in school,” she said.
The 2015 sex ed program “was presenting things to children … when they weren’t necessarily ready,” she said.
“The trouble with now is what they want to present to the children is much more graphic and much more disturbing than anything they did in the ’80s and ’90s when my children were growing up.”
Douglas said she answered her children’s questions at an ageappropriate level when they asked them. “I didn’t want the school system to decide, ‘Today, we’re going to tell you everything whether you want it or not,’ ” she said. “And children were traumatized by that, I know they were.”
In Thursday’s throne speech, the Ford government promised to replace the 2015 “sex education curriculum with an ageappropriate one that is based on real consultation with parents.”
“I would hope they could present the issue of sexuality in a form that recognizes the fact that young children have a latency period,” Douglas said. “They’re not interested in this. But we seem to, as a society, want to impose big worries that adults have on little children.”
Advocate Farina Siddiqui said in an interview that she thanked the new government for “acknowledging the fact that this issue was an issue and that parents were not happy.”
Siddiqui has been an outspoken advocate against the 2015 curriculum. “It was too much too soon for elementary school kids,” the mother of three said.
She said content in the curriculum — such as teaching Grade 6 students that “exploring one’s body by touching or masturbating is something that many people do and find pleasurable” —“is not discouraging.”
“It’s telling them it’s OK to do it; we’re not teaching you to do it, but it’s OK to do it,” Siddiqui said. She compared it to “giving them a cigarette with the lighter.”
Siddiqui said the repeal of the curriculum “is a good step” toward something better.
“But still remember not to forget your role as a parent. You still have to be involved, you still have to be engaged … we should respect each other supporting or opposing this curriculum.”