ADVICE FROM AN ADVOCATE
Taking it one step at a time can go a long way to helping people in war-torn Syria,
Two Toronto Catholic school trustees have failed to persuade their board — the largest Catholic board in the province — to ask Queen’s Park to delay the new sexual-health curriculum by a year to allow more parental input.
Trustees Angela Kennedy and Garry Tanuan had asked the Toronto Catholic District School Board to delay implementation of the curriculum this fall because they say that it doesn’t present sexuality in the context of love and marriage.
However, the board voted 8-4 on Thursday night against seeking a delay that its eduction director Angela Gauthier said she “would not recom- mend.” Board lawyers warned trustees that they have a “legal obligation to comply with provincial (curriculum choices) and not to do so would be unlawful.”
However in a joint statement released Thursday with Tanuan, Kennedy said, “Substantial parts of the curriculum contradict Catholic teachings.”
The fact that Catholic educators are being allowed to design special resources to help Catholic teachers present the material within a Catholic framework only proves the material is controversial to begin with, they suggest.
“To me the fact that the government has allowed a special teaching resource for Catholic schools to deliver the program is a red flag,” Kennedy said. “Even if (Catholic) teachers get different teacher prompts (suggestions for classroom discussion) it doesn’t seem like a total solu- tion if they have to teach general expectations that we disagree with.
“Catholic schools shouldn’t be forced to teach a program that doesn’t ground the expression of sexuality in love and marriage.”
Five parents made passionate presentations at Thursday’s meeting about the curriculum. Parent Iola Fortino called the province’s new curriculum “psychological abuse of children,” and said it was “just about promiscuity.”
Fortino urged trustees to demand a delay of what she called the government’s “homosexual agenda.”
In contrast, Jane Seymour of Ontario Association of Parents in Catholic Education (OAPCE) urged trustees not to seek a delay of a curriculum that brings, in her words, “much needed change.
“We’re pleased the province has a new curriculum in this day and age when child are exposed to more mis- information, in real time, than we parents could ever know.”
Education Minister Liz Sandals said in a statement Thursday that the new curriculum promotes the heath and safety of students.
“The current Health and Physical Education (HPE) curriculum is from 1998 — more than15 years out of date and long before Facebook and Snapchat became a part of everyday life,” she said. “The new curriculum has gone through the most extensive consultation process ever undertaken by the ministry, involving parents, students, teachers, universities, colleges and other groups including the Ontario Parents in Catholic Education.
“Our students deserve an up-todate research-based curriculum that provides them with the knowledge and skills they need into today’s complex and ever-changing world,” said the statement. With files from Kristin Rushowy