Peel sex-ed guide gets imams’ OK

Board has worked tirelessly for approval of faith leaders

The Peel school board’s information guide on the new sex-education curriculum now has a crucial stamp of approval from four local imams — and the board is also arranging information sessions for parents to be held at two local mosques.

The extensive outreach is a part of its plan to counter the misinformation that ran rampant in many communities about the updated health curriculum implemented in schools this fall. When the Peel District School Board recently released its 14page guide outlining what children will be taught and in what grade, it did so with the support of a number of faith and cultural groups.

Missing, however, were imams. So, after four recently attended a two-hour workshop on the curriculum — the same one teachers are receiving — they issued a statement of support of Peel’s efforts.

One was Imam Belal Ahmad of the Islamic Society of Peel, who also teaches Grade 5 at a private Islamic school in Brampton. He said there are many opinions about the curriculum, “and I want to be sure my community has information about the issue.”

Imam Zahir Bacchus, also a teacher at a private Islamic school, said regular meetings between the board and numerous faith leaders have included discussions about the curriculum before it was rolled out, including “obviously, the backlash from the communities . . . the main problem was people had issues with how is it going to be taught.

“The Peel board came to us and said, ‘What is the best way of approaching the community?’ and we suggested a number of things. If they were going to give their teachers a workshop on how to teach the curriculum, why not have us sit in so we will know?”

“So we can take that back to our community and understand it a bit better, to offset some of the rumours and some of the things floating around.”

Attending the workshops “was a wonderful expression from them, of reaching out to the community and showing us exactly what they are going to be teaching,” he also said. Leaders from other faith groups are also taking part.

While the updated health curriculum is mandated by the province, parents do have the option of removing their children from the sex-education component, which would typically take 40 minutes over two days. Families cannot, however, ask that their children be exempt from talking about same-sex partners or gender identity or about being inclusive.

Bacchus said he personally has no issues with the curriculum.

“I look at it as things going on in society at large, and the response from our government and the ministry (of education) to handle those types of situations. These are things our youth are facing, no matter what their religious background is.”

He’s advising parents to be informed about what’s to be taught, and if they still have objections, “they can be accommodated.

“The board will send home a letter two weeks in advance (of sex-education lessons), and I think that’s the fairest way to do it.”

Bacchus, who attended public schools growing up in Toronto in the 1970s and ’80s, said the new curriculum “is not really anything more extreme than what I went through and was taught in schools,” but said it’s important that parents talk about cultural and faith values with their children.

The Peel board’s “Facts Matter” booklet was published in 11 languages and sent home to all students from kindergarten to Grade 12.

Peel is the only Ontario board going to such efforts regarding the updated curriculum, which was first introduced in 2010 by then-premier Dalton McGuinty but ditched until this school year. Opponents have called it immoral and age-inappropriate. In Toronto, almost 200 students have been removed from two public schools in protest.